Golden Rubies
by Roxius
Summary: A collection of ErLu short stories of various lengths and genres, including AU, and may feature other couples as well. Drabbles are mostly disconnected with each other. Erza X Lucy, yuri, shoujo ai, lesbian romance. Will be updated irregularly. Reviews are greatly appreciated!
1. Welcome Back

"Oww...ouch...ooh..."

Lucy winced, and whined, in pain with every step as she dragged her wounded body through the halls of Fairy Hills apartments, trying to reach her room for a much-needed reprieve. She was almost literally covered from head to toe in bandages. Her mission, alongside Natsu and Wendy, had involved kicking out a bunch of high-grade thugs that had taken up residence in some warehouses in a nearby town. The fights had been a cinch, of course, but a bit of bad luck and Natsu's own stupidity caused Lucy to fall off the upper floor of the warehouse, straight into an empty crate.

Fortunately, Wendy had been taking private lessons from Porlyusica, but her current healing skills could only do so much, so Lucy was left with a terrible aching as well as some minor cuts and bruises. Natsu had apologized over and over until he nearly cried, but Lucy forgave him. She had to, because she was afraid to think what Erza Scarlet, her girlfriend, would do if she found out Natsu's responsibility in this whole mess. She was very protective of the blonde; Lucy loved that aspect about her lover, but sometimes she thought Erza overdid it. Last time, a poor sod who had tried flirting with Lucy very nearly got himself hurled into a fruit stand.

'Now that I think about it, Erza should be getting back from her own mission sometime today...oh, she's not going to like this at all,' Lucy thought as she groped around in her pockets for her apartment key. She planned on getting cleaned up and putting on some new clothes before she went and paid Erza a visit, if she was already back in her own room. Lucy slipped the key into the doorknob, unlocked it, and stepped inside.

"Welcome home, Mistress Lucy."

Had it been physically possible, Lucy would have probably squirted a gallon's worth of blood out of her nose right then. Erza was standing before her in little more than a skimpy maid outfit, revealing a generous amount of cleavage as well as her thighs. She did not appear to be wearing any underwear either. Lucy had almost forgotten how perfectly toned Erza's body was, like a lovely stone sculpture, a living embodiment of beauty. Her breasts were large and her curves prominent, but she still carried herself so easily, and the faint outline of muscle only added to her intimidating, but marvelous, form. Not to forget her incredible red hair as well, which could stand out so easily even in a crowded room. The contrast was glaring between Erza's dominant personality and her outfit's obvious link to sexualized submissiveness, and yet Erza could make it work so well, not losing an ounce of her pride even in choosing such a dress. Erza was truly a goddess, bound in human flesh.

Lucy felt her knees go weak for a moment. Her hidden perverse side, the side she held exclusively for Erza, was showing again. She was the one who always liked girls; Erza had only come out to being bisexual a few months ago, at the start of their relationship. Everyone else had claimed they thought it was going to be the opposite. Lucy had really been enjoying exploring her sexuality to the fullest, thanks to Erza.

"E-Erza...what're you doing?" Lucy stammered. She didn't have to ask how the redhead got in this time; she had given Erza a spare key for occasions like this.

Erza laughed. "I heard from Virgo that you had a thing for maid outfits, so I decided to pick this up on the way back here to surprise you...do you like it?" She did a little spin, revealing that the back of the costume did not cover much skin either. Lucy was feeling seriously tempted, but in her current condition, she doubted that she'd be able to enjoy this scenario to its fullest. Oh, how she wished her arms didn't ache like they did right now.

"It looks really..." Lucy coughed into her fist, "...Really great on you."

Erza smiled, about to say something, but her grin quickly fell apart when she noticed the current state of her lover's body. She took it all in with silence for a few seconds. "What happened to you, Lucy?"

"Oh, these? Well, it's kind of a long story, but Erza, no matter what, please promise me you won't get mad!" Lucy begged her.

Erza's brow furrowed, eyebrows knit with clear ferocity. "...What happened to you, Lucy?" she repeated. The fact she was wearing a skimpy maid outfit did not make her seem any less imposing.

Lucy looked down at her feet, like a child being forced to explain a mishap to the parent. "I...I kinda got hurt on the mission..."

"What? You got hurt? How? When? Who do I need to beat up to make you feel better?" Erza was really beginning to get riled up, and she made no secret about it, which concerned Lucy even more.

"You don't need to beat up anyone, Erza," Lucy told her, folding her arms across her bust, "It was all an accident. Natsu was fighting some criminals, I took a misstep from nearby, and I fell into a crate. I'm actually in much better shape than I could be right now; Wendy healed most of my more serious wounds already."

Erza clenched her fists so tightly that the skin turned white.

"And don't go picking on Natsu because of this either! He didn't mean it! And he's already apologized enough!"

After contemplating a moment longer, Erza declared her resignation with a heavy sigh, and she pulled her lover into an embrace. The soft, laced fabric of Erza's maid outfit felt warm on Lucy's skin. Erza's right leg felt to be pushing near her crotch, just barely touching the inner-thigh, but that was enough to elicit a response. Lucy moaned as she wrapped her lips around Erza's, who graciously received the kiss. The two women kissed again and again. Once they started, it was a difficult thing to stop. Erza's tongue slipped along the roof of her girlfriend's mouth, and then down her throat. She started playing with the girl's hair too. Lucy raised her arms to properly embrace her girlfriend, but a burst of pain shooting up her limbs halted her.

"Ah..." Lucy grimaced, pulling away from Erza to grip her throbbing arms.

Erza frowned. "Lucy, are you really in that much pain?"

"I'll be okay...really..." Lucy tried to laugh it off, but she was cut off by another sharp, jabbing feeling.

It was clear that it upset Erza greatly to see her girlfriend in such a state. She leaned over and gently brushed her lips over the bandage on Lucy's right cheek. Lucy blushed, although she would much rather have another kiss on the lips instead.

"What're you doing?"

"I'll kiss all of your pain away," Erza said with a face so fierce, so stern, that it actually terrified the Celestial Mage, "I can do that, because I'm the strongest woman of Fairy Tail, and you are my woman. I should have the power to do that."

"E-Erza...I...I don't think you can-"

Erza stared at her.

"Okay, I understand...but can't you do it without having such a scary look on your face?" Lucy cried.

Erza ignored her and resumed her kissing. She kissed Lucy's cheeks, her neck, her shoulders, her arms, her hands, and most of her fingers. Lucy's willpower was beginning to slip; it was asking far too much, to keep herself in control as she was lovingly kissed all over her fragile body by Erza wearing a maid uniform. Still, Lucy understood even better that holding composure was important. Her eyelids fluttered shut. She wanted to attune all of her senses to focus solely on her lover's gentle touch. Erza went lower and lower. She slipped her thumbs underneath Lucy's shirt and lifted it high enough to reveal the girl's bellybutton. Lucy almost burst into protest, but when Erza kissed the delicate bruise underneath her bellybutton, she swallowed her words back into her dry throat. Erza's tongue tickled the inside of Lucy's bellybutton. Lucy was enjoying this way more than she thought she would. Erza peppered Lucy's belly with several more kisses before turning her attention to a much more interesting target.

"I wonder how many bruises you have down here..." Erza said with a throaty chuckle as she began lifting Lucy's skirt. Lucy moaned loudly, gasping Erza's name.

Lisanna had her back pressed to the wall. She was right beside the girls' door, which they had mistakenly left open. Her face was steaming red; she had to hold her breath just to keep from accidentally blowing her cover. She had heard about Lucy's unfortunate accident from Natsu, and she wanted to pay her friend a visit, but it seemed she came at the time of a very intimate moment between lovers.

"Ah! Erza, I forgot to close the door!"

"What? Dammit...hold on a moment..."

Lisanna heard the door slam, and looking over, she saw that it was so. She sighed in relief. That was just way too sexy for her. The youngest Strauss sibling hurried away. Maid outfits, kissing, bellybutton-licking...it was too hot and heavy.

Snapping to her senses a second later, Lucy bonked Erza over the head.

"Okay, stop! I should be resting right now, not letting you do this! Cut it out!"

"...Sorry..."


	2. Sleeping Kiss

Lucy had never felt so happy to plant her butt on a bench and take a load off her aching feet. Erza sat down beside her. Lucy stretched her arms high, groaning in relief.

"I'm so glad it's finally over!" she cried.

"Indeed. It did not involve any battles, but...it was tough..." Erza quietly replied.

The two girls had taken on a mission together earlier that day, one they thought would have been simple work: helping out as waitresses for the grand opening of a new dumpling store in town. Unfortunately, it turned out that dumplings were quite popular in town, as the place was flooded with costumers almost instantly. Lucy and Erza barely had any time to sit down, as more and more orders were thrown their way. Not to mention the uniforms they had to wear were suspiciously revealing in the cleavage area. A good number of men spent more time staring at their breasts than they did eating their food. Lucy would have picked fighting bandits any day of the week over having to go through that trouble again.

"Well, we did make some good money out of it, especially after we brought up the threat of sexual harassment over the clothes!" Lucy giggled, "Hey, Erza, do you think maybe we could take the money to go out on a fancy date or something-"

Lucy felt something soft press against her shoulder. She looked over, and saw it was Erza's head. Her long red locks were draped over Lucy's right shoulder and breast.

"Erza?"

Lucy blinked. She called Erza's name again, but no answer. All she could hear was the gentle, slow breathing of a sleeping woman.

'She fell asleep!' Lucy was shocked. She had never expected the Titania to be so worn out from a waitress job that she'd fall asleep, and she didn't even wait until they were back at the apartment to do so. Lucy stared at Erza a while longer. Her eyelids were definitely shut. Lucy couldn't see all of her face too well from her position, but she got a good look at the redhead's round, plump lips. Lucy's cheeks flushed.

'Now that I think about it, Erza's been taking a lot of S-rank missions lately, trying to get up money for the both of us...' Lucy frowned as she recalled all those times Erza returned late at night, covered in bruises and barely conscious from sleep deprivation, 'No wonder a little work like this would knock her out so fast...maybe I should try and talk her into taking a break from a while. I don't want her to end up badly hurting herself.'

So Lucy sat there, pinned down by her slumbering lover, unable to move or speak a word without fear of waking her. Minutes passed, and pretty soon it had been almost an hour. Lucy gulped. She didn't know how much longer she could sit here. They were outside by the bridge cutting through town, just a few blocks from the guild. Everyone was looking at them. A few smiled or chuckled, but most looked confused. Lucy tried to ignore them by focusing her attention on Erza again.

She looked really cute when she was asleep. Still, Lucy didn't doubt that if someone ever tried to attack her in bed, Erza would be able to instantly snap awake and fight back. She was hardly hampered by human limitations as it was, so it seemed feasible for her. Lucy stared harder. She'd never seen such tempting lips, though.

'I probably shouldn't do that, since it'll wake her...but...'

Lucy leaned in. She pressed her pursed lips against Erza's scalp, her nostrils digging into that beautiful red hair. It was a simple, chaste kiss, and nothing more. Lucy started to pull her head back-

"Hold on."

Erza grabbed Lucy by the cheeks, and forced her down so they were at eye level. Erza kissed Lucy on the lips, and the Celestial Mage's own eyes nearly popped out of her skull in surprise. She could feel Erza's tongue on her teeth and in her mouth. Erza had always been fond of using her tongue, for some reason.

Erza held the kiss for a beat and then released, allowing both of them the chance to catch some air.

"That's how you're supposed to kiss me." Erza told Lucy, and she promptly went back to her sleeping position from before. Lucy could only stare at her with her widened eyes.

'Was she really even asleep at all...?'


	3. Parents

Erza didn't like cemeteries, and she didn't believe much in talking to the dead, not anymore, but she knew it would be cruel of her to try and talk Lucy out of it. She loved the girl too much. Besides, she was an orphan now. How could she stop her from wanting to talk to her parents?

"Mom...dad...this is my girlfriend Erza Scarlet..."

Erza blushed. As she watched the blonde speak and kneel in front of a pair of gravestones, Titania started to get uncomfortable. She felt like she was being judged harshly under the gaze of an overly-critical parent. It freaked her out staring at the stones. She could have sworn that somewhere, somehow, the spirits of Lucy's parents were actually watching her at this moment. They were heeding their daughter's words, and they were seeing if Erza was really the right one for her. Of course, Erza was probably over-thinking things, but still...it made her shiver a little. She made sure to stand straight and keep her hands out of her pockets, just in case. Lucy placed another bouquet of flowers by the graves.

"I know, you're probably really surprised that I'm actually dating another woman, but don't worry, she's a member of Fairy Tail like me, and she's absolutely trustworthy! I really, really like her, and...and I'd like to marry her one day..."

Erza blushed even harder, but for entirely different reasons now than before.

"But I promise I'll find some kind of magic that'll allow us to have children, so I can continue the family name."

By this point, Erza's head had become like a massive tomato with hair on it. Lucy was just too much sometimes.

"We've been together for almost five months, and I'm really happy. Happier than I've been in a long time...I love her so much..."

Erza smiled a little.

"She treats me so well. We go out a lot and we work together on missions. We've fought together more times than I can count. She's dependable and smart, even if she may not catch on with every single joke. She is more beautiful than any woman I've ever met. She always knows how to cheer me up when I'm down, and she may be a little overprotective, but I know she just wants me to be safe. There's so much I can learn from her, from how brave and strong she is. She's not one of those rich, affluent men you wanted me to marry, dad, but she's perfect for me as she is."

Erza stared at Lucy's back; the girl was beginning to tremble, and her voice was interrupted with heavy sobs. Erza sniffled as quietly as possible.

"I wish...you two could meet her in person..."

Erza held back from taking the girl into her arms and comforting her. She knew that Lucy wanted to get this all out, to take on this heartache by herself. Still, it was hard for her, because she had sworn to herself she would never let Lucy weep.

"There's so much I wanted to do with you two. I sometimes wish I could go back in time and change things, so we could live together and have a proper, happy family like I know you two wanted. I want to be able to set things right by you. I'm sorry that I was a bad daughter before...I'm sorry that I ran away from home and I missed every single birthday present you sent me for seven years, but...but that's how things are, and I just want you to know that everything is going to be okay for me...so I hope that makes you happy too..."

Lucy stood up. She took a deep, shuddering breath before speaking again.

"Thank you so much for being my parents. I love you both with all my heart."

Lucy wiped her face into her arm. When she turned to Erza, her cheeks were dry of tears, but the puffiness of her eyes gave it away. Erza smiled softly, embraced Lucy, and held her for a good minute in silence. Lucy eventually calmed down. Erza didn't say anything; although it had been some time since they awoke in a future seven years later, Lucy still had some trouble accepting the death of her only other living parent. She was a sensitive girl, and knowing how much her father cared for her before his passing only served to make her heart heavier. That's why she had chosen to come here periodically, to speak to the graves as if her parents were truly standing before her. It took time for such wounds to heal, and everyone experienced it differently. Erza knew Lucy would be fine in the long run.

When Lucy expressed she was fine, the two girls walked away, hand in hand.

Erza looked over her shoulder, back at the two graves, sitting there so serenely. Erza swore to them both that she would do everything in her power to ensure Lucy's proclamation of her happiness never faltered.

* * *

"Erza, thank you for coming with me. Even though we didn't stay there very long."

"It's fine. I'm actually touched that you wanted to bring me along for such a personal moment."

"Of course I would! You're my girlfriend! Why wouldn't I bring you?"

"Heh heh...but in the end, you just wanted to show me off, didn't you? Like I'm a trophy or something!"

"T-That's not true at all!"

"Ha ha ha!"

"...Erza?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you something a little personal, that I just thought of right now?"

"What is it?"

"How come you never mentioned your parents? I know that you came from the Tower of Heaven when you ended up in Fairy Tail, but what about your hometown? Did you ever try to go back and find your family?"

"Oh, that? My parents were murdered when a raid of Zeref cultists attacked my town. They kidnapped me and a number of other children and we were forced to build the tower for them."

"Oh...oh, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said anything at all, Erza..."

"It's okay, Lucy. I've gotten over it a long, long time ago. I've been back to my hometown too. It's just an empty field now."

"Do you...do you remember anything about your parents?"

"Not much. What I've been through...it kind of made me forget a lot of things. But I do know that I got my red hair from my father."

"I bet they were wonderful people."

"I know they were. And I'm sure that they would be really happy with how I've turned out...oh, of course, they would have loved to meet you too."

"Likewise."


	4. Eyes

A gentle purr rumbled from Erza's throat, the woman lightly tapping her puckered lips over and over against Lucy's face. They were lying entangled under the tent that was supposed to be Lucy's bed covers. Both girls were as nude as they could possibly be.

"I love you,"

Lucy smiled into the kisses, eventually catching her mouth on Erza's, and they remained locked for a good five seconds. Their tongues wrestled. When they separated, they only wanted each other more again. Erza's head dipped down, so Lucy was only staring at her red hair. She loved that red hair so much, both its color and the way it felt flowing through her fingers.

"I love you too," Lucy whispered. She shivered from the chill of her lover's saliva being slathered all over her hickey-riddled neck.

"I love you, Lucy,"

"I love you too, Erza," Lucy's breathing became increasingly labored.

"I love you, Lucy," Erza repeated again and again, as if it had become her own personal mantra. For all extents and purposes, it may as well be.

Lucy giggled and wrapped her arms around the girl. She grimaced in pleasure as those skilled fingers made quick work of her below. Erza kissed the blonde again, but this time, it was near her eyes. Those golden-brown eyes Erza loved a little more than the rest of Lucy's body, if only because they could display the girl's wonderful personality so brilliantly and vibrantly.

"I love you, Lucy...so very much..."

* * *

"Get down, Lucy!"

Erza snapped at the girl, who followed orders immediately, dropping to the floor just as a sword came flying through the space that her head had just been occupying. The man who had attempted the talk swore loudly. Erza jumped her, her own blade clashing against his. Lucy quickly scrambled back onto her feet, turning to survey the situation. It wasn't looking good.

At the moment, the two women were caught in the middle of an ambush. A seemingly ordinary mission to deliver a package had turned out to be a trap: a trap meant to take down the Titania once and for all. While Erza was busy contending against the mastermind, several other thugs had already set their eyes on the Celestial Mage. Hungry, ravenous eyes, more interested in having their fun first and killing Erza later. Lucy thrust one of her shining gold keys into the air, and began focusing her magic.

"Gate of the Lion: Leo!"

There was a brief flash, a roar of power, and the red-haired spirit of the Lion emerged from its cave. Loke tackled one of the closest men as he proclaimed some canned phrase about 'defending Lucy's honor'. Another thug threw a knife for Lucy's head. Lucy turned and started running into the maze of boxes behind her. She hated leaving behind Loke and Erza, but she planned to rejoin them soon, she just needed to prepare her magic.

Lucy was about to dart between two of the boxes when suddenly, Erza came landing beside her. Fortunately, she looked unharmed so far.

"Lucy, are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay! But what about you?"

"I'm fine," Erza nodded, "This fight is going on longer than I thought. This guy is pretty good with a sword."

"But...you can win, right?"

"There's no doubt." Erza's lips curled into a confident smile. Lucy smiled back.

"I want to help you!"

"No, I think you should stay here; it's safer this way. They aren't here for you, just for me. I'll be able to handle them easily once I take down the guy leading the operation."

"But, Erza-"

"I want you to stay safe, Lucy. Please."

Lucy stared at Erza, her golden-brown eyes meeting Erza's dark-brown ones. There was no sign of hesitation or wavering in Erza's expression; she wasn't going to back down from her decision. Lucy sighed in defeat. She hoped that Loke would be okay without her, though.

"Okay...I'll stay here..."

"Thank you." Erza gave Lucy a quick kiss on the lips before heading off again, leaving Lucy behind by herself. Lucy watched her go, her back left wide open as a result. She only noticed when she felt a large hand grip her shoulder. A blade was slipped in front of her face. Lucy only had the chance to start screaming as she felt an explosion of pain hit her like a brick wall, burning worse than fire. She tried to run away, but her assailant threw her onto the ground instead. Her sight had delved into darkness. She felt streams of wetness pouring down her cheeks. She clawed helplessly at her face; she couldn't see anything anymore.

"My eyes! My eyes!" Lucy screamed in agony.

She heard a voice, a man's voice, but she could barely make out the words over the intense pain. It was something like 'I got her! I got her!'. She heard footsteps drawing close, then the man started to scream himself. His wailing was cut short, however, by the sound of a blade cutting into raw flesh. A thump, someone falling to the floor, and they didn't move again. Lucy felt like she was going to vomit, it hurt so much. She still couldn't see anything. She cried out Erza's name; she felt a pair of strong and familiar arms take hold of her. She knew it was Erza right away, just from the touch alone. Lucy could hear her clearly.

"Oh god, Lucy...!"

* * *

Erza stood over her lover's sleeping form, barely able to hold her sobs in check. Lucy was lying on the cot, her damaged eyes covered by a cloth dipped in a special herbal water, and she had been given a shot to calm her into slumber. Immediately after finishing off the rest of the thugs, Erza and Loke had rushed Lucy to Porlyusica's cabin for aid. Although it was well-known that Porlyusica despised 'humans', she had no qualms in letting Lucy inside, practically rushing the two carrying her to be quick about it. Loke insisted that he remain at Lucy's side, but unfortunately his time in the human world was cut short by Lucy's lack of magic outflow. Erza felt like her entire body had been dipped in ice water, and she wasn't allowed to come up for air; she couldn't take her eyes off of Lucy for a second.

Porlyusica entered from her washroom, wiping her hands. "She seems calm now."

"Yes..." Erza choked out.

"I'm going to need to look at her eyes now."

"Alright." Erza stepped aside so Porlyusica could remove the cloth. The elderly mage raised the cloth just enough so she could see, not wishing to upset Erza further, who was peering over her shoulder. Porlyusica shook her head after a few moments.

"Her eyes...they are too far damaged. I cannot hope to heal them as they are."

Erza felt herself sink even deeper into that ocean of suffocating ice, all the way down to the sea floor. Her body was entangled in chains. Lucy...her Lucy...she was blind.

"We're going to have to remove what's left, so that it doesn't get infected."

Erza took a step forward. "What about...what about artificial eyes? Like the one you gave me? You can do that, can't you? I don't care if it costs a lot; I'll pay you back every single jewel for them!" she was starting to get frantic. "Please!"

Porlyusica shook her head again. "No...I cannot do that."

"Why?" Erza almost shouted at her.

"Prosthetic eyes are nothing easy to create. Yours was a very special case, because I possessed the necessary ingredients at the time. To create an object of that nature that can be used as a working organ is incredibly difficult, and the shard of magical crystal needed for the core only ever grows once a hundred years. It would be impossible to make one right now, let alone two. I'm...so sorry, Erza."

This time, it was Erza who shook her head. "No, I have an idea." she said.

"What?"

Erza pointed at her face. "Give her my eyes."

"Erza...! I know you're passionate for this girl, but take some time to consider! You can't give her both of your eyes!"

"Well, okay...maybe not both of them...b-but I swore to myself and her, that I'd protect her, so I'm not going to let her stay in the darkness! I'll give up whatever's necessary to help her! I want Lucy to be able to see me when she wakes up, so believe me when I say I'm serious about this, Porlyusica!"

Porlyusica frowned. Just like all those other Fairy Tail troublemakers, her skull was too dense for any sensible talk to get through. However, she also knew that Erza had her heart in the right place. There was one more problem, though. One thing she hesitated to bring up just in the case Erza would offer up her own eyes like she inevitably did. In fact, Porlyusica had a good feeling what Erza would say even after hearing this.

"Erza...you should know that, because the artificial eyes are so complicated, they also need to be personalized...the prosthetic you have right now will only work for you, and no one else...so do you really wish to go through with this, knowing what that means? Knowing what you'll have to give up?"

Erza was quiet. She looked surprised, confused and saddened all at the same time. She thought it over to herself in silence, but finally, she nodded her head.

"I understand."

* * *

Erza and Lucy held hands as they walked down the corridor leading to the guild hall. Both girls were trembling, they could feel it in each other's fingers, but they tried to keep themselves calm all the same. Everyone was waiting for them. They had been informed by Porlyusica that the operation was a success, and that the girls were heading back now. The procedure had been a quick one, thanks to advanced magic. Natsu, Gray, Mirajane and the others wanted to make sure to greet them properly with a big party, although they were still anxious to see Erza and Lucy nonetheless. All they had heard so far was that something bad had happened.

"Erza...I..." Lucy started to say.

"It's okay, Lucy. We can talk about it more later."

"No, Erza, you don't understand. What you did for me...it's...it's-"

"Lucy. I don't think even I can make sense of what I just did for you. All I can really say is that I did it because I love you. Let's talk about it later, okay?"

"Erza...oh..." Lucy started trembling harder.

"Hey now, don't start crying right when everyone is about to see us," Erza softly chuckled, squeezing Lucy's hand tight, "We got to try and look happy, right? We don't want them to worry any more about us than they already do." The two women stopped in front of a large door.

"I know...I know..."

"I love you, Lucy,"

"I-I love you too...Erza..." Lucy leaned over and kissed Erza on the lips. Erza returned the kiss, lips upon trembling lips.

Erza opened the door and they stepped inside. Everyone in the guild was there, as expected. A cake was sitting on the table and there was alcohol and balloons too. However, no one said anything at first. For a few seconds it was like the Exceed had caught all their tongues.

Erza and Lucy were both wearing eyepatches. Lucy had an eyepatch over her left eye, and her right eye was no longer the same color as before; it was now much darker, like Erza's. A small scar ran on the bridge of her nose, between the patch and her eye. Lucy forced out a tiny smile as she waved hello to everyone. Erza waited for someone to make a move.

Natsu was the first to get his bearings together. "Lucy! You're alright!" He would have probably tackled her in joy if he hadn't considered her current condition. Still, he ran over to hug her, and everyone else soon crowded around the two women. They all asked a million things at once. Some of the girls cried for Lucy. Soon enough, the grin on Lucy's face became genuine. Erza was greatly relieved to see her love's beautiful smile again.

No one made comment about how Erza's eyepatch was covering her left eye.


	5. The ErLu craze

It was late at night in the city of Magnolia. Natsu was already splayed out in his bed, his covers crumbled on the floor. He snored loudly and unabashedly.

His Exceed friend Happy, however, was still wide awake. He sat in the illumination of candlelight, the winged cat sorting through a collection of very special photographs. He had been flying all over town for the past few months, taking photographs with a new contraption called a 'camera', and selling most of those pictures to numerous different buyers. This time would be no different; all he had to do was choose the very best shots and send them out. He always received a large sum of money in return. Happy had his eyes on a certain golden tuna, and he wasn't going to stop until he had his little claws around it. Besides, he was practically making a business out of this.

The photographs Happy took featured his fellow women from the Fairy Tail guild. In the beginning, he had taken candid photos of all girls, but before long, it turned out there was only one kind of picture anyone was willing to shell out big bucks for: Erza and Lucy together, as a couple. They went crazy for photos of them talking, kissing, hugging, holding hands, and the occasional 'erotic' shot too. Happy was as happy as his name to provide, even though he was never told what the photographs were being used for. He planned to tell Lucy and Erza eventually, but not until he accumulated enough wealth, so he could bribe them not to get mad about it afterward.

After picking out the best photographs, Happy placed them all into several envelopes. The happy, bouncy cat, unaware of what events were about to transpire because of his poor decision-making, slipped out the bedroom door without waking his friend. He dropped the envelopes into the mailbox downstairs. By tomorrow, the photographs would be sent to all corners of the great town of Magnolia. The money would arrive one to two days later at best. Happy hummed with joy as he slipped back underneath the covers.

'Aye, I bet if I keep this up I can buy all of the fish in Magnolia...!'

* * *

Erza and Lucy walked hand in hand through town; they were going on one of their usual morning strolls together. It was almost like a ritual for them. They liked to watch the stores open, and sometimes, they would slip inside to be the first day's costumers. Lucy tended to focus more on the fashionable items like clothes and jewelry, while Erza usually went for food or fun little trinkets. Regardless of what they bought, though, Lucy was happy enough simply spending time with Erza. Her Erza. She hugged the redhead's arm a little tighter.

"So where do you think we should go today?" she asked.

"I dunno..."

"How about the cafe? I hear they're doing coffee art there now! We can get our faces drawn on our coffee!"

"That sounds...odd."

"Oh come on! We can get your face in my drink and my face in yours! It'd be really cute!"

"If I wanted to drink you, I'd take you to back to my room right now."

"E-Erza! Please! Not now..."

"What? Still worn out from last night? I'm sure Levy has something we can borrow-"

"Cut it out already!" Lucy nipped at Erza's ear. "Or else I'll bite you!" she stuck her tongue out.

Erza looked over at her lover, and she suddenly made a rather frightening expression. "I think I'd be much better at biting than you, wouldn't you agree?"

Lucy bowed her head. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Erza chuckled.

They walked along a little further before Lucy froze, her eyes drawn to the windowsill of a certain store. A sign had been placed against the glass that read 'LIMITED TIME ONLY - ERLU MERCHANDISE!'. Underneath the sign was an assortment of items: dolls of Lucy and Erza in embrace, a chibi figurine set of the two kissing, a magazine with real-life photographs of the two, as well as pencils, stationary, erasers and notebooks among other things. All of it was 'ErLu', apparently a combination of Lucy's name with Erza's, and it was meant to denote them together in a romantic sense. The color in Lucy's face quickly drained away.

"Erza...look at that..." she pointed at the window display. Erza gasped upon seeing it. Her eyes grew wide, bigger than dinner plates, as she stormed over to the window. Her hands clenched tight. Lucy grinned; if there was anyone who could take care of this, it was Erza. She seemed pissed, and when she was pissed, problems were taken care of. Or new problems were started. Either way, something was about to happen.

Erza pressed her face right up against the glass. She started sniffling. "It's...it's...it's all so cute!"

"What?"

"It's adorable, Lucy! It's us! Everywhere!" Erza was acting more giddy than a schoolgirl around her favorite crush. Lucy couldn't believe this.

"Erza, you're not supposed to be excited about this! You should be upset about why people are using our images to make toys like this!" Lucy shouted. This actually wasn't the first time that people had tried to make a profit off of Fairy Tail members' likenesses, because of how popular they all were. However, no one had ever focused on any particular relationships in the guild, and the fact that it was on her own made Lucy very, very upset. Sadly, Erza didn't see things the same way her lover did.

"Lucy, there's even a manga drawn about us too! It's rated 'Adult Only'! Maybe it can give us some new ideas, you think?"

"Erza, calm down-"

"Let's go inside right now!"

Grabbing Lucy's hand, Erza rushed inside. Fortunately the store had just opened a few minutes ago. Lucy was more stunned by what she saw inside; there was even more merchandise inside, and it was starting to get ridiculous. There were ErLu coffee mugs, ErLu bath-towels, ErLu napkins, ErLu paper plates, ErLu t-shirts and shorts, ErLu jackets, ErLu manga, and even a ErLu board-game where you need to help the two girls fall in love. Most of the items bared the same image; Lucy and Erza kissing passionately, usually just their heads alone. Lucy shivered. It was way too much for her. Erza, however, was loving it more and more.

"Hello there, ladies! Interested in buying something?" the shop owner cackled. He was a small man who seemed intent on making himself big; he wore a large jacket, with large glasses, standing behind a large counter and assumed to be standing on top of a large stool. He had his bony hands clasped firmly together. He didn't say anything on how Erza and Lucy were so eerily similar to the couple featured everywhere in his store. Still, Lucy figured, he was aware of it.

"Excuse me, sir, I'd like to buy everything-" Erza started to say.

"Hold on! What's going on here? What are all these...things you're selling?" Lucy interjected, pushing Erza aside and slamming her hands down onto the counter. The old man continued to smile at her with that smarmy little grin.

"It's the first line of Erza X Lucy merchandise, of course! We have quite a set-up of items too. Considering your reaction, you've probably already seen most of them when you came in here. What do you think? Your friend seems to be happy."

Erza wandered off, snatching item after item off the shelves. She was especially excited about the figurines.

"How...why...what would possess anyone to make this kind of stuff?" Lucy cried; suddenly, she thought of a possible culprit. That damn Rogue from the future was trying to ruin her life again! As if killing her future self wasn't enough! Fortunately, the leering geezer had the answer to her questions.

"A lot of photographs of the couple have been passing around lately. People these days, they love cutesy stuff like that, so we figured it'd be a good idea to capitalize on it. Besides, can you blame us, though? Two hot girls making out? It'll sell millions!"

"...Photographs? What photographs?" Lucy felt like she'd just swallowed a lump of coal; someone had been taking photos of her and Erza. Someone had been spying on them and selling off pictures of the couple's most private moments. Lucy had been unwillingly groped, goosed and stripped more times in her life than she'd ever hoped, but never before had she felt so genuinely violated. She usually wasn't prone to violence, but if she could lay just a single finger on that damn voyeur...she'd probably be scary enough to make Aquarius afraid.

"Lots of them. Got into the hands of a few different people, and now there's bound to be several other little establishments like this one, all over town for people to see. It's a lot of competition, but I have had way more experience in the business, so I'm confident with my chances."

"Other stores..." Lucy didn't like the sound of that. She found all of these products featuring her and Erza to be exceedingly creepy, but knowing that total strangers would be buying this was even more terrifying. Lucy couldn't allow that to happen; she had to protect her dignity and her privacy, as well as Erza's. Opening her purse, she took out a clump of bills all neatly rolled up, which she placed in front of the old man. The geezer's eyes seemed to bulge ten times their normal size.

"I'll buy everything you have." the blonde Celestial Mage announced. The old man looked as if he were experiencing a heart attack. Erza, overhearing, rushed back to the counter, eyes alight.

"Really, Lucy? Everything?"

"Everything. We can afford it, thanks to all of our S-rank missions together."

"Yeah, but...an entire store...?"

"Erza, if what I'm assuming is true about this merchandise featuring us," Lucy told her girlfriend, "Then it will likely reveal more things about us to the general public than we'd want them to know...and you know what I'm talking about..."

Erza's face fell. "Okay. We'll buy everything."

Lucy beamed back at her. "Good!"

* * *

Several hours later, and the two women were back in their apartment room, hardly able to walk half a foot without bumping into some kind of item bearing their visage. Posters of Erza and Lucy holding hands adorned the walls, shelves were packed with both books and miniature models, Lucy was wearing a baggy t-shirt with their kissing faces on front, and Erza kept the porn for herself.

Lucy had been true to her word and bought out every store that sold ErLu items, ensuring that not a single thing remained. It cost her nearly every single jewel she had, and she'd have to rely on borrowed credit for a while to make due, but it had been worth it. She planned to ask Natsu to burn everything the next day, but for now, she wanted to relax. Erza insisted that they played the board-game; after some prodding, Lucy agreed. She was admittedly a little curious to see it too.

"Okay, Lucy, it's time for you to decide what present you're going to give me for Valentine's Day! Roll the dice to see what you get!"

Lucy rolled the dice, letting it drop out of her hand after a few shakes. It landed on a '2'. Erza flipped through the game manual.

"So...it looks like you not only fail to get me a good present, but you give me an STD instead..." Erza frowned.

Lucy sighed. Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.


	6. The Death Dream

A/N: Based on chapter 100 of the manga (way back then!).

* * *

Erza blinked. She felt like she was floating. Yet all that seemed to surround her was never-ending whiteness.

'Where...am I?' those words pulsated through her brain like an echoing wave. She really couldn't hear or see anything, only feel the warmth of the 'air' wafting around her. Erza simply hovered through the empty void for a time, waiting for something to occur if anything. She truly had no idea what had become of her, or why she was in a place like this. She recalled what had happened to her before waking up; the Etherion blast had been fired at the Tower of Heaven, and she desperately wanted to save her nakama. Ah, yes...she sacrificed herself to stop it, didn't she...?

'So...does that mean I'm...?'

Suddenly, the scenery changed. She was no longer in whiteness, but now high above Magnolia city, in the middle of a rainstorm. Erza looked down; there, all of them donned in black, was her guildmates. They stood together before a massive, opulent gravestone. Many of them hung their heads, some weeping quietly, and some sobbing boisterously. Erza felt a cold tingle crawl up her spine when she read the name of the deceased that was carved into the granite. It was her own name. She was dead after all.

Erza watched with great agony as the scene unfolded before her; the Master's speech, the ten holy mages, Natsu's outburst, and everyone bursting into tears over losing her. Erza could barely hold herself back from crying as well. She hid her face behind trembling hands. She had never wanted something like this to happen. She had died for the sake of their smiles, not to leave them all so heart-broken. It was too much to bear. She didn't want to watch even another second of this; she couldn't stand this future she'd given them.

'Huh?'

Erza felt different now. She removed her hands, wiping away her tears, and looked around. She was no longer outside, but inside an apartment room. By the looks of it, it was Lucy's room. The young woman's funeral dress, the one she had worn just seconds ago, was now spread out to dry on a table beside her. There was a light shining from the bathroom.

'Why am I here? What's going on?' she wondered. The bathroom light shut off, and Lucy entered the room. Erza blushed. Her guildmate was practically naked, wearing a white slip nightgown, two sizes too tiny, and white slippers to match. Lucy yawned and climbed into her bed, unaware of the voyeur ghost right above her head. Erza stared closely at her. She'd never noticed how small Lucy was, as if she could just encompass the entire girl with her arms alone.

Lucy started crying. It was a soft and gentle cry. Erza wouldn't have even noticed it if she hadn't been watching in the first place.

"Oh god, Erza..." Lucy choked out after weeping for three straight minutes. She pressed her face into a pillow and cried harder. Erza's heart literally felt like it was shattering apart as she witnessed this. She reached out for Lucy, but when her fingers came close enough, they slipped through the girl's arm instead. Erza frowned; she should have expected this. Lucy was breathing heavy at this point. She sat up, still clutching the pillow to her chest, and tried to wipe away more oncoming tears. She was shaking so hard; she must have been holding most of it in during the funeral itself. Erza drifted down onto the bed, sitting beside her. How desperate she was to be able to take the girl and comfort her right then and there.

"I never..." Lucy whimpered into the soft, tear-stained pillow, "I never got to tell her how I felt about her."

Erza nearly jumped out of her skin; if she had any skin to jump out of, that is. Lucy stood up from the bed, and Erza watched her walk away.

'Lucy...' Erza reached out to her, again forgetting that she was confined to a spectral existence. She almost couldn't believe what she was hearing; was Lucy...was Lucy stating she liked Erza in THAT way? The way that a man and a woman were supposed to share? Erza's hand fell back onto the bed. She was already in bad shape after witnessing her own funeral; this was becoming far too much for her crumbling psyche. She was discovering Lucy's deepest, most darkest secret, against her own will. Never once had she suspected the Celestial Mage of having romantic feelings for her. Erza felt like such a fool. Even if Lucy was another woman, Erza had liked the blonde in ways that could be seen as mutual attraction.

"No...I shouldn't blame her. It's my fault, for never growing a damn spine and coming out to her like I should have. I...I didn't want her to reject me, and think I was some kind of horrible, perverted person..." Lucy kept talking aloud. It seemed odd, but Erza didn't question it; she was far too engrossed already. Erza approached the weeping girl from behind.

"Erza...I loved you so much...I loved you more than I ever should have. I'll never stop regretting not telling you my feelings before I lost you." Lucy opened the top drawer of her clothing chest. She removed a chest plate. The chest plate of Erza's Heart Kreuz armor. Erza gasped. Lucy pressed the cold steel plate close to her bosom, clutching it as if she were embracing the real Erza Scarlet. Lucy dipped her head, her chin lightly brushing against the plate. The plate was soon soaked in tears.

"I'll never forgive myself for not being able to save you."

Erza ran to Lucy, but it was too late, the world around her started to recede. All of the color faded to whiteness again, and it did not take long before Lucy also vanished. Erza screamed in exasperation. She had no idea what was going on, but she assumed it meant her time was up. She'd been given that brief chance to see what she'd lost because of her foolish choice, and now she would be taken away to the afterlife, where she would stew in her regret and despair for the remainder of eternity. Erza felt her body shred, rip and crinkle into nothingness...

* * *

"Erza! Erza! Wake up! Please!"

Erza stirred. She opened her eyes to see a number of faces staring back at her. Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Happy, Sho, and Lucy. Almost all of them were weeping with wide smiles on their faces. Looking beyond them, Erza saw the moon and an array of stars shining down on her. It was nighttime. She was cold and wet, but she was also alive. She was alive. Erza shot up into a seated position, nearly scaring the people surrounding her. She looked around, wild and disoriented. She soon regretted moving so much when the aching pain set in.

"What...? What's going on?"

"You're alive!" Lucy was the first to embrace her. Happy and Juvia followed suit. Natsu and Gray seemed too tired to even lift their arms anymore.

"I'm...really alive? But how? I thought..." Erza drowned off. She was starting to make sense of things. That entire sequence, with the funeral and Lucy's confession, had it all just been a dream? Lucy, the real Lucy, smiled at the redhead with her eyes still leaking tears. She looked so much like the weeping Lucy Erza had seen in her ethereal state. But still, it was that smile that made all the difference. And her lips suddenly seemed so kissable; Erza had to force herself not to start blushing.

"It was Natsu. He saved you." Lucy whispered.

Erza glanced over at the pink-haired fire mage. He seemed to have fallen asleep where he stood, having used up the last of his stamina rescuing her from imminent doom. Erza smiled; she'd have to thank him more properly later.

She turned back to Lucy. There was something on her mind she couldn't get rid of. "Umm...Lucy, could I ask you a question?"

"Huh? Yeah, Erza, what is it?"

"Do you...I mean, are you..." Erza didn't really know how to phrase it. She tried to form the words, but she couldn't, because not only did she doubt her own thoughts, but she didn't want to embarrass Lucy either. She had believed that weeping confession to be so real, but now, she couldn't help but wonder if it had simply been part of the dream because that's what Erza herself wanted to hear. Maybe she wanted Lucy to love her. Yet that wasn't reality, so it was all fake in the end.

Finally, after nearly a minute, Erza closed her eyes, shook her head, and gave Lucy a reassuring grin.

"No, never mind. It's nothing."

Lucy cocked her head, confused, but she accepted it anyway.

'It was just a dream...and that's it.' Erza told herself. 'I should just be grateful that I'm still alive right now...'


	7. A Visit From Satan

In the tiny church on the top of Fairy Hill, falling to her knees before the massive monument to the holy Lord before her, the young nun tightly clasped her hands together and prayed. Several curls of blonde hair peeked out of her black nun's bonnet. Her name was Lucy Heartfilia, and she had been a member of the Fairy Covenant for the last three years of her life. She had had a long and tough life, starting from when she ran away from her family in her early teens to committing various acts of theft, assault and vandalism. It took the aid of Mirajane Strauss and Mavis Vermilion, the head nuns, to convince her to renounce her ways and take up this new religious following. She was forever grateful for them taking pity on her sinful soul.

"Oh Holy Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name..." Lucy quietly murmured aloud. She imagined herself prostrating before the Lord and offering her entire soul for Him, confident that He would never steer her wrong. She desperately needed His guidance these days, more so than ever. She was being plagued by a heinous creature, a vile spirit who would not leave her alone no matter how much she pleaded, and her cross pendant nor the holy water did anything either. Lucy was near her breaking point.

And then a pair of manicured hands latched onto her breasts from behind.

"Eeeeek!"

Lucy leaped to her feet, nearly tumbling on her face as she stepped forward. A woman's voice laughed from behind.

"Oh, Lucy, just how long will you let yourself get scared so easily? You should be well-acquainted with my hands already,"

Lucy spun around. Her brown eyes met a pair of red eyes, so scalding hot that they could burn holes into Lucy's skin. A woman whose wonderful form was covered in a slim red dress, with open slits that revealed her prominent cleavage and her perfectly sculpted thighs. Her long hair was just as red as her eyes and the dress, or maybe even redder. Her lipstick was red too. So much red that it made Lucy's stomach turn, and it brought to mind images of searing flames and melting charcoal. Lucy swallowed; this was not her first meeting with this terrifying woman. She reached for the cross hanging around her neck as a safe-guard. The red-haired woman smiled sweetly at her. The woman's eyes switched from a scarlet red to an inky black with a single flutter of her eyelids. It seemed she believed this to be a visual sign of her friendliness, but its purpose was lost on the trembling nun.

"Why are you tormenting me, you horrible demon?" Lucy spoke in a shouting whisper, her tone attempting to convey the frustration and the terror she felt at the same time.

The woman laughed. "I already told you, Lucy, you can call me 'Erza'. I want you to say that name...and I want to hear you moan it too..." she laughed again.

"S-Stop teasing me!" Lucy thrust the cross in front of her, as far as it could go, "I will not let you try and sway me from God's path! Never! Even if you really are the Goddess of Hell, I will never submit to you! God is the one I belong to! And...and he will protect me...!"

"You've gotten more and more feisty with every visit. I like it." Erza took a step forward, and Lucy took a step back. The blonde woman's eyes were drawn to Erza's dress; the hem seemed to crackle and flicker, like flames. This woman was wearing fire. There was no mistaking that she was someone not from this mortal plane, although Lucy had already learned this long ago. It saddened her deeply that the Devil had chosen her as someone worthy, but...what upset her even more was the way she felt whenever she stared at that face. 'Erza' was beautiful, more beautiful than the lovely Sister Mirajane or any other woman Lucy had met in her life so far. However, Lucy knew this was all part of the Devil's sinister tricks, to tempt her with 'desires of the flesh'. The fact that Erza's beauty swayed her told Lucy that she was a true follower of Christ yet, and that filled her with so much sorrow.

Before she realized it, Lucy's chin was caught in Erza's hand. The demon smiled at her; her mouth was filled with razor blades in the guise of teeth. Lucy flinched.

"Why won't you accept my offer, Lucy? Why do you keep fighting me like this? We've been through this again and again and again and it always ends the same way. Don't you know how much better I can treat you than that old, worthless coot you keep worshiping? It's a waste of time. I can give you constant pleasure and satisfaction forever, and yet you want to deny both of us. That's pretty silly."

"Please...let go of me..." Lucy grumbled.

"Hey...you like it when I touch you, though, right?" Erza laughed, her other hand slinking around Lucy's back, "I could just ravish you now and take you home with me, you know, but I want to see you get on your knees and BEG me to take you...although I do know I've been making some leeway with you lately. Admit it, Lucy."

"T-That's not tr-" Lucy let out a breathless gasp in response to the fingers playing with her butt-cheeks.

"I make you angry all the time, Lucy, but I know you secretly like it. You want me, but you're too afraid to admit it because you're so devoted to your 'God', right? Leave him. He'll do no good for you. He doesn't really care about you, and no matter how much your pray, he won't reply back. I, however, do care. It's not a difficult choice to make, my dear. Come on."

Lucy began reciting prayers under labored breath as her cheeks became more and more flushed. She was starting to lose herself, as if she'd gone too long without oxygen and she was beginning to get dizzy, barely able to continue holding onto that sense of awareness. A smell like burning wood and perfume wafted past her nostrils; it was enough to make her gag. That was the chance Erza needed. With Lucy's mouth open, she thrust her lips upon them. Lucy cried into Erza's mouth. The two of them fell to the ground, Erza straddling Lucy. With a sweep of her hand Erza knocked off Lucy's bonnet, letting the young woman's hair flow over the ground.

"I've been getting impatient," Erza whispered, "I'll show you just what you're missing, to help you along with making your choice. God won't ever do you this good, baby."

"Stop it…! I won't go with you! I'm…I'm not someone who will betray the Lord's grace!" Lucy bellowed at her.

Suddenly, the church doors opened.

"Lucy? Are you…okay? I heard you screaming. Sister Mirajane sent me to get you, and…"

Erza's head snapped up, and she looked to the doorway, where Lucy's fellow nun Levy McGarden stood. Erza's eyes flashed back to their original red coloring. Although she had practiced much patience in Lucy's case, she was not so forgiving to those who dared interrupt her fun. She made her way slowly toward the bluenette. From Levy's point of view, Lucy had been lying on the ground by herself. She could not see Erza, because Erza herself did not allow it. Lucy scrambled back onto her feet, still reeling from that incredible kiss.

"Levy! Run!" Lucy screamed.

"Huh? What?" Levy cried back, ignorant of the jaws of death preparing to close down upon her.

"No!"

Lucy lunged at Erza. She put all of her strength into her tackle, but it didn't push over Erza like she hoped. However, the demon did turn to see Lucy's face so close to her. For the first time since she arrived, it was Erza's turn to start blushing. The nun's crying face…it was just too cute. It was as if the swords of the holy angels themselves had just been driven into her metaphorical heart. She'd been up close and personal with the girl before, but never before had she seen this kind of determination and strength. It aroused her, but it also infatuated her. Lucy had always made her half-hearted attempts in holding her back, but this time, she was really willing to put her life on the line for another person.

Erza stopped in her tracks to stare at this amazing specimen of a human girl for a few seconds longer. Living in Hell, she did not meet many people like this. She was beginning to realize how lust was not the only reason she kept paying Lucy these personal visits.

"Please, don't hurt her…" Lucy begged. "Keep your hands off of my fellow Sisters, you…you…"

Erza's rage immediately subsided. She needed to get out of here, and fast. "Okay."

"Huh?"

"I'll leave her alone. I'm going back, but I…I promise I'll come back for you again, Lucy."

"F-fine…"

Erza melted into the floor, and she was soon gone. Lucy felt like her lungs could finally resume operating again; she'd never experienced such a tense moment like that before. Levy, however, was still oblivious to everything that had just transpired in front of her. Lucy couldn't claim she understood it any better, though. Erza had been on top of her only moments ago, but just now she'd been uncharacteristically compliant. What had happened to her? Lucy had no idea why she was so concerned about Satan's well-being, but for some reason, she was.

"Umm, are you okay, Lucy?" Levy asked, cautiously.

"Y-Yes…I am now…what was it that you said Sister Mirajane needed?"

"Oh, she said she wanted you to come with her and Sister Lisanna to help the elderly in town today!"

"Right…I'll…" Lucy nodded, "I'll be right there…"

* * *

Back in Hell, Erza was having some trouble sorting out these new feelings of hers. Her cat servants, the Happies, were fighting over who would get the chance to pour their mistress a cup of wine.

'There's no way I could have let her see me blush like a damn little girl around her. She's the one who's supposed to get weak in the knees, not me!'

A Happy with a black eye and two missing teeth handed the chalice to Erza. She downed its contents in a single gulp.

'I've lusted after her for a long time,' Erza mused, 'But lately…have I begun falling in love with her too? Is it even possible for a being like myself to have that kind of emotion?'

Erza looked up into the darkness overhead. She frowned.

'Did I blow it for good after what happened today? Trying to be forceful just isn't working out for me.'


	8. Double Date in Edolas

Meanwhile, in Edolas, things were going surprisingly well between Lucy Ashley and Erza Knightwalker. It may have been due to a cross-dimensional mental influence from their Earthland selves getting together, a lack of interest in anyone else possible to date, or a secret attraction hidden for years, but the Fairy Tail renegade and the mightiest knight of Mystogan's court were now dating. They were surprisingly willing to put their dark past as enemies behind them. Lucy was still a tough-talking little bitch, but she had learned to hold herself back somewhat once Erza came into her life. At first, when they were seen spending time together, Lucy's guildmembers and Erza's fellow knights did not know what to make of it. However, any and all suspicions were officially confirmed when Coco mistakenly discovered the two passionately slurping on each other's tongues in the castle garden. The dog-faced youngster had become a yuri fangirl on the spot.

Now, on this particular night, the couple in question was about to attend a double-date.

"Why do we have to go to one of these things again? I'd rather just hang out at my room...or your room," Lucy grumbled under her breath.

"It's good for us to have other things to do than play around in bed all the time. This is our chance to meet other couples like us. You know, same-sex couples." Erza replied. She wore an expensive evening gown with lipstick and high-heels, a far cry from her usual choices of attire like battle armor or lingerie. Lucy thought it was pretty sexy; she took shy glances at Erza's backside whenever she could. Unlike Lucy, though, Erza took their relationship very seriously, as seriously as she took everything else in her life. That was why she wanted to go in the first place, to help broaden both her horizons and her former nemesis'. Lucy was going to the double-date wearing her usual outfit, and she honestly didn't give a flying fuck about it. If they didn't like it, they had to deal with it. Erza was the only one who could really talk her into doing things, and even then, the redhead knight hadn't spoke up against Lucy's clothing yet.

"I still think you're making too big of a deal about this; it's not even a formal event! We're going to a diner!"

"I...I just like to look good, that's all," Erza's cheeks flushed; it wasn't in her nature to admit it when she made mistakes, "Besides, I know you're enjoying it when I wear this, so why are you complaining so much?"

"Hmph...whatever, babe. After we're done here, I'm smoking all the weed I can get off Levy until this whole event is just a big, black, empty box in my memories."

"I won't stop you, lover-doll."

"...Who are we meeting up with, anyway?"

Erza scrounged around in her purse until she pulled out a small sheet of paper. She unfolded it and read the names aloud, a simple streetlamp illuminating the words scribbled on the page.

"Yukino Acalapos and Minerva Jiemma."

Lucy froze in mid-step. Her eyes bulged, her cheeks paled, and bullets of sweat spread out all over her face. "Y...Yukino Acalapos?" she spoke as if she could keep herself under control saying the name aloud.

"That's right. What's the problem?"

"You sure you aren't saying the name wrong or something?"

"I can read! It says Yukino Acalapos! Look at it yourself!"

Lucy didn't need to read it; she believed Erza well enough already, as much as she wished it wasn't so. "This isn't going to be a good night...not at all..." the blonde rebel groaned, pressing her palm to her face. Erza cocked her head to the right. She didn't understand what Lucy meant at first...but she would soon learn.

* * *

A young woman took a long drag on her cigarette. She had short silvery-blue hair, the fringes framing her face. Her eyes were sharp and black, staring back at the two women across from her like an evolved being would look down upon an insignificant insect. She wore a dress that looked as if it were made out of the torn feathers of crows, yet somehow, it fit her splendidly, especially considering her raven-like personality. On the top of her right hand was the emblem that revealed her affiliation with a guild: the Sabertooth Guild, to be exact. Sitting beside her was another member of the guild, except she was practically the woman's polar opposite. The young woman sighed, releasing the puff of gray smoke she'd been holding in. She turned her attention on Lucy, who twitched in her seat.

"So, Lucy...this is your new girl after me, huh? She's a damn good looker, but, um, excuse me for asking...isn't she the one who worked as a mindless pawn for that bastard king, and tried killing you and your friends several times?"

"Yukino, don't you think this is a bad time to be bringing up that sort of stuff? They've...they've put the past behind them..." The woman accompanying Yukino spoke up. She wore no make-up, kept her black hair long and straight, and her clothes were noticeably plain too. Although she spoke to Yukino on an informal basis, she made it no secret that she was also a little terrified of the girl. She was taller than Yukino, about Erza's height, and possibly the same age as the knight as well. She was quite soft-spoken. To Erza and Lucy, this scene could have been comparable to a puppy dog trying to appease a lion.

"Minerva, don't you know who this bitch is? She's my ex!" Yukino said to her, pointing at Lucy with an accusatory finger. "And she's dating the enemy!"

"Former enemy." Erza finally decided to speak up and defend herself, "The old king has been dethroned, his son has become the new king, and I've been making a great effort to repair the damage I've caused in my past days at the old king's behest. Lucy Ashley and I have a mutual interest in one another, and I'd prefer that you did not go around thinking that I'm coercing her or that I am being indebted to her. It's a relationship based on love and attraction. Unless...you'd rather fight so I can knock some sense into you instead?" Erza's eyes flashed dangerously, as if suddenly she'd become coated in a ferocious aura, reminding of her old days as the infamous guild-destroyer Knightwalker. Even though she was more down-to-earth than before, Erza was still one of the strongest warriors in the entire kingdom, and she could kick just about anyone's ass. Yukino placed her cigarette back into her mouth. She was cocky, but she wasn't stupid enough to risk life and limb over an argument.

"Nah...forget it. If that's what you say, then I'll believe it. She's telling the truth, huh, Lucy?"

Lucy nodded. "You better believe she is!"

"Hmph...wonderful. Isn't that great, Minerva?"

"Y-Yes, it is," Minerva blushed.

"You know, since we're on the subject, why are you complaining to me about having a new girlfriend?" Lucy snarled, "You're dating someone else too! So what right do you have to complain?"

"Hey, my girlfriend is better than your girlfriend! She never tried to kill me!"

"What? You really are asking for a fight!"

Lucy and Yukino continued to glare daggers at each other while their significant others could only sigh, shaking their heads. Just when one argument had ended, another had begun. Erza and Minerva decided that if there was sort of meaningful conversation going on, it'd be best between them. They were the only ones here with any sort of common sense, it seemed.

"So, I don't think I've ever seen your name on the list of members of the Sabertooth guild before..." Erza said. Minerva returned with a sheepish grin.

"I'm...I'm actually just a barmaid there. I live at the guild quarters, but I'm not officially a member."

"Really?"

"Actually, my father works at the guild as a janitor, but because he helped raise the orphaned children there, he's treated the same as any other member. I suppose that privilege extends to me too, especially now that I'm dating the guildmaster's daughter..." Minerva giggled into her hand. She looked over at her girlfriend, who was still matching glares with Lucy, and smiled at her. Erza recognized that look on Minerva's face. She'd only seen it in movies so far, but she knew it was a true and honest expression. It was the look of a young maiden in love. Despite Miss Yukino's extremely rough exterior, it seemed that Minerva could see something deep inside her that no one else could.

"Lucy!" Yukino shouted.

"What?" Lucy shouted back.

"Let's order as much alcohol as we can get, and see who finishes drinking it all first!"

"Oh, you bet your peachy little ass it's on! Yo, waiter!"

Sure enough, a waiter soon approached them. His nametag read 'Arcadios'. "Are you ladies ready to order?"

"Bring us all the alcohol you have!" Yukino barked at him, taking out a hulking wad of bills from her pocket and slamming it onto the table. Lucy offered up her own cash as well. They were both looking pretty anxious. Erza rolled her eyes; she knew how much Lucy could put away, and this double-date of theirs, if it could even be called that anymore, was more than likely going to end with two very drunk women throwing lazy, drunk punches at each other. However, the redhead wasn't going to step in the way; she could tell that, in spite of her scowl, Lucy was having fun.

When the girls got their orders, they instantly started drinking, eyes locked to make sure neither missed when the first one cracked. Erza and Minerva helped themselves to some small appetizers, but they weren't really hungry. They were busier talking among themselves, and watching on in repulsed fascination at the lengths their girlfriend went to outdo each other.

"Hey, Yukino!" Lucy shouted after her fifth beer, already getting a little tipsy.

"Eh?"

"My girlfriend...not only is she smart and has a high-profile job, but she's got big tits too! Show 'em, Erza!"

"You wish." Erza grumbled.

"Oh yeah? I bet my girl has an even bigger chest! Lift your shirt, Minerva!"

"N-No!" Minerva tugged hard on her shirt as if she were afraid her clothes were being lifted off by a sudden change in gravity.

Lucy didn't like this one bit. "Hey! Don't go picking on her! She's clearly too good for you, so learn how to treat a lady right! Don't go picking on her, dammit! If you ever hurt Minerva, I'll kick your ass!"

"Oh yeah? If you go and let down Erza like you let me down, then I'll kick YOUR ass!"

"You think you can do it?"

"You bet I can! I don't even need magic to take you down!"

Throwing aside the empty bottles and ignoring the full ones left, the two young women finally slammed into each other in a vicious tackle, rolling onto the floor as their tussle intensified. Minerva let out a shriek. Erza stood up, staring down the two girls who were so busy with each other that they failed to notice this much more dangerous threat above them. Grabbing an empty beer bottle behind her, Erza slammed the glass onto the table, shattering it with an explosive bang. The restaurant instantly collapsed into a void of silence. Lucy and Yukino looked up at the redhead, and their faces could only do so much to express the terror they felt. Erza's glare could set an elephant ablaze.

"Apologize." she ordered.

"...But-"

"APOLOGIZE!"

"...Sorry."

An hour later, and the two couples were on their way home, having left a rather awkward trail behind them at the eating establishment.

Lucy held onto Erza while Minerva supported Yukino with her arm. Erza had forced the two girls to kiss and make up, so to speak, but there was going to be some real kissing and making up needed to be done for how fast this whole night had gone down the hole for them. At this point in her drunkness, Lucy envied Yukino right now. She would much rather be in the embrace of a gentle soul like Minerva than have to deal with a very frustrated and pissed off Erza Knightwalker.

"I'm sorry, Erza..." Lucy muttered under through beer-laced breath.

"Hmm?" Erza hummed.

"I...I ruined everything. I let my past and my anger with Yukino get the better of me, and I...I...I acted...so stupid..."

"You did. And I'm very upset with you."

"Yeah..."

"Although you did seem to have fun with her, in your own way. I enjoyed getting to know them too, Although maybe we should have met somewhere else instead."

"Huh?"

Erza grabbed Lucy by the side of her head and pulled her in, curtly pressing her lips to the blonde girl's forehead. "I'll forgive you for tonight...this time. You don't get many chances, though. You're going to need to make it up to me, and by God, will I make sure that you make it up to me."

Lucy could only grin and laugh sheepishly.

Yukino, meanwhile, was too intoxicated to form anything even slightly coherent anymore. Minerva gripped her tightly. She slipped one arm around the length of Yukino's back, her hand stopping over the smaller girl's right breast. Minerva's lips quivered, her eyes twinkling with devious glee. She squeezed Yukino's breast as if it were a mound of play-doh, letting the squishy tit-flesh flow out between her fingers. Minerva rubbed it, and Yukino groaned. Suddenly having second thoughts, Minerva pulled her hand back, although the warmth still clung to the skin of her palm. She blushed; she was letting herself get far too daring sometimes.

'Dammit, Yukino, why do you keep tempting me like this...?'


	9. Confession From The Future

Lucy Heartfilia, the Lucy that had come from a ruined future, clasped her hands over her mouth when she spotted Erza Scarlet among the crowd. It was the night of a festival for the Magic Games, and everyone had gathered outside to celebrate. Not wanting to be seen, the blonde threw herself into the nearest alleyway, bathing herself in shadows, as a tornado's worth of emotions raged about inside of her.

'...Oh God...'

She'd known that this might happen, in fact, she expected it, because she eventually needed to meet Natsu and her past self face-to-face. But still...she had to fight hard to keep the tears from gushing down her cheeks. It was her. Erza. The Erza she had fought alongside with many times, and one of her closest female friends in the entire guild. The Erza she had fallen in love with, harboring a crush that she feared could never be revealed. The Erza who had been devoured alive by dragons right in front of her. She could still remember Erza's agonizing screams as they tore her limb from bloody limb. And she hadn't been the only one she witnessed die this way, but Erza stood out most of all.

Lucy started heaving over and over. It hurt so bad, like hell-fire in the pit of her stomach, to think back to that moment. She wanted to bawl, but she'd done that for far too long already, and she knew that crying all the time would get her nowhere. That lesson had been forced upon her in the wake of the dragon attack. She wiped at her eyes, swallowed hard to clear her throat, and tried to calm herself. She was making an important decision, one that she never would have considered before. It put the entire time-stream at risk, and it could ruin her one chance to save her beloved guild from utter destruction, but her desires, her heart, had won out. She figured she could be selfish enough just for this one moment, and to do for herself the one thing she always wished she had done.

'No. I can't let this chance go by. Not when I'm about to change the entire future. I...if I don't do this, I'll carry the regret in my heart forever...'

Lucy looked around for something she could use. She wanted to approach Erza, but she couldn't do it while her face was exposed; even with the hood pulled as far as it'd go, it wouldn't be enough to fool someone like Erza.

'Maybe if I wore a mask...'

Lucy hurried off, blending herself into the ever-flowing mass of people, her eyes set on something she could use to cover her face. Eventually, she came across a stand selling masks; she used what little money she had left to purchase one. Much to her distaste, the masks were depictions of cartoonish dragons with wide eyes and cheery, toothy grins, like cartoon drawings. It was adorable, but also a far cry from the terrifying reality. Lucy shivered. It would have to do for now. She strapped the mask over her face and left to find Erza again. Tomorrow would be the day she would have to finally confront Natsu and her past self. This would be her last chance to say the things left unsaid.

* * *

"You know, guys, I think I'm going to take off,"

Erza's sudden declaration caught her surprised looks from her friends, especially Natsu and Lucy. Wendy, Gray, Juvia and Elfman were all trying their luck at a ring-tossing game, but only Wendy seemed to be having any luck in it. Poor Elfman put too much strength into his throws, and Gray couldn't throw straight with Juvia clinging to his arm all the time.

"Eh? Not feeling well, Erza?" Natsu asked. A dango stick protruded out of the corner of his mouth, like some sort of odd cigar.

"No, that's not it."

"Are you going back to the hotel, then?" Lucy looked more disappointed than she meant to let on. She wanted to spend more time with Erza, in a peaceful moment like this, when they didn't have to worry about fighting. She had had a pretty strong crush on the redhead since the day they first met, and it was obvious to nearly everyone except the very object of affection herself. Lucy wasn't ready to come out about her affections yet, but she still wanted to stay at Erza's side and share as many experiences together as possible. When the day she could work up the courage to confess would come, she wasn't sure, but for now, she was happy with what she had with Erza. At least they were friends, and close ones at that.

"No...I think I might take a walk. See the sights."

"Oh, could I go with you?" Lucy asked. This might just be it. This could be her chance to tell Erza she loved her. She felt like a giddy little twelve-year-old, but she honestly didn't care at all.

Unfortunately, Erza smiled at her and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Lucy. I'd rather be alone for this. I'll see you back at the hotel later tonight, okay?"

"Oh..." Lucy's face fell, "That's alright. See you later."

Erza gave her a small wave before walking away. Natsu pat Lucy on the shoulder, trying to comfort her. He knew about Lucy's problem, and although it had hurt him at first, he knew it was better to be happy for his friend's choices no matter what they were. If Lucy wanted Erza over him, well, that was just the way things were going to be.

Erza kept walking until she reached the river that crossed through the center of the city; the bridge was filled with people from end to end. Erza sighed. She didn't really know what she was trying to do or where she was planning to go. She had briefly considered visiting Jellal, but then she remembered the one kiss they shared, and it became a thought too unbearable to imagine. She didn't want to go back to the hotel either; there was nothing to do there. For some reason, she had felt like she needed a breath of air away from her friends. Yet now she regretted it. Erza had a good assumption on what was making her act so anxious. Tomorrow was going to be the final round in the Grand Magic Games. She would have to contend against both Kagura Mikazuchi and Minerva, two of the strongest female mages in Fiore. No matter how strong she thought she was right now, it was bound to be a battle that would push her to the very limit. Erza sighed again. For the first time in ages, she felt like she could use a stiff drink.

Erza heard the sound of tapping feet, and she looked to see a hooded figure standing next to her. The stranger was short and petite, definitely a woman by the looks of it. Her face was hidden behind a cartoonish dragon mask, something that did not seem fitting on anyone older than the age of five and a half. Erza wasn't going to chase her away, though.

"Hello...?"

"You're..." the masked woman coughed, putting on a falsetto voice, "You're Erza Scarlet, aren't you? I saw you in the Magic Games. You were...amazing every time you stepped into the arena. Incredible, really! The way you took down 100 monsters all by yourself. I don't think anyone else could have done it."

"Yeah? I didn't think it was much, but thank you..." Erza felt a bubbling in her stomach, and she knew it was her discomfort with such personal praise; she was used to receiving compliments from her friends or her clients, but to hear a total stranger fawn over her, like some kind of fangirl, was not something she wanted to happen. The proper ways of response were lost to her. She had met people who became stalkers over their obsession with her, and she really, really hoped that this wasn't another one of those.

"...You're just as strong as I remembered you." the masked stranger said, and it was now that Erza's perspective of the situation completely changed. The redhead's eyes widened, her knuckles tightened, and she felt a chill that stuck like glue to her spine.

"Wait, what did you just say? As you remembered? Are you talking about from seven years ago? It's kinda hard to explain why we disappeared for so long, and why we don't look any older, but...heh heh..."

"No, not seven years ago. In fact, more like a year into the future."

"What are you talking about? Who are you?"

Erza reached out to tear the mask off of the stranger's face. However, just as her fingers brushed the surface of the plastic object, its wearer jumped back in self-defense. Erza pulled her hand away as if she were about to touch hot coals. She hadn't expected such a fast reaction time.

"Please...tell me who you are." Erza begged. "What do you want from me?"

The masked stranger made a strange sound, something between a cough and sputter, but Erza quickly realized that she was crying. She raised her hand to re-position the mask. Erza noted that the girl never seemed to use her right arm. The girl's coughs soon transformed into wild, violent, hiccuping sobs. Erza's poker face belied the immense amount of thoughts running through her mind. She recognized the girl's voice, as hard as she tried to distort it. She recognized the way she cried. Her ears were just as good as her eyes or her limbs; they could pick up these small notices, and the stranger did not seem to be aware of this.

"Ohh...Erza...I'm so sorry for doing this...but..." the girl suddenly leaned in close, and she whispered, in the quietest of voices, "I love you...more than I've ever loved anyone else. I wish we could have been together, if we ever had a chance at all. I absolutely, positively love you, Erza Scarlet."

"Hey-!"

"I'm sorry!"

Erza tried to grab the girl again. This time, the masked stranger shot off like a bullet; she weaved her way into the oncoming crowds, her black cape disappearing before Erza's very eyes. Erza didn't run after her. She didn't have to. She knew who the girl was.

"Lucy..." Erza must have murmured that name over a hundred times under her breath before finally stopping. It had been Lucy who had just confessed her love to her. Erza brought a hand to her cheek. Another woman, one of her best friends, was in love with her. There was no way that it could have meant anything else than a love usually reserved for a man and a woman. This was the second time it had happened in her life, (Mirajane had said it once before by 'accident') but for some reason, Erza felt much more satisfied hearing Lucy say it. She started to smile a little.

'Lucy loves me...'

* * *

Future Lucy ducked behind a pile of crates. She looked out to make sure she hadn't been followed. Fortunately, it seemed Erza hadn't even tried to put up a chase at all. She didn't know why, but she wasn't going to question it. Lucy tore the mask off of her face and threw it to the ground. She clutched at her face, desperately trying to swat away the oncoming tears, but they just wouldn't stop. Lucy slumped to the floor, still sobbing. She was so relieved and happy to finally say those fated words. Yet, at the same time, she felt great sorrow, like the hole in her heart had been torn open a few centimeters wider.

'I finally told her...I told her, but really, in the end...just what good will it even do?'

* * *

That night, the present-day Lucy was lying in bed, eyes shut tight but still awake enough to react to the surroundings around her. She heard the bedroom door open. It was Erza. Usually, it would be a few hours before Erza, in a random bout of sleep-walking, would slip out of her own bed and get herself nice and cozy in Lucy's own, something that the blonde anticipated greatly. This time, however, Erza immediately got into Lucy's bed. Lucy continued to feign sleep, so as not to startle her friend.

Lucy felt a pair of arms take hold of her waist, and a dry pair of lips bury into her neck's back. Her eyes snapped wide open.

"If you were hoping for an answer, I love you too, Lucy." Erza whispered into the younger girl's ear, "But next time...you should just come out and say it, no need to don some crazy get-up and scare me like that...heh, you're so cute."

Lucy started sweating bullets. 'Did I miss something here?'


	10. Erza's Nightmare

"Good night, Lucy."

"Good night, Erza."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The two women shared a quick kiss before pulling the covers up and closing their eyes. It had been a long day, but finally, they had finished moving in all of their stuff, where they would live together, and hopefully forever, as wife and wife. This was their first night in their very first home. Lucy wrapped her fingers around Erza's underneath the covers; she was so excited to see what tomorrow would bring for them.

A few hours later, Lucy felt a rather painful jab to her side.

"Gah!"

She shot up, almost leaping out of bed, but she looked over and saw that it had been Erza's foot. The red-haired woman seemed to be fussing about, although her eyes were still shut tight. Lucy stared at her for a few more seconds, witnessing the girl throw her arms around and her head thrashing back and forth. She seemed to be experiencing some sort of bad dream, or maybe she was in a state similar to sleep-walking, except for her it was 'sleep-fighting'.

Lucy reached out to her. "Erza-"

She was smacked across the face for her trouble. Unfortunately for Lucy, Erza's unnatural strength was in full force here, and she lost two teeth as well as a few ounces of blood from being slapped. Lucy staggered back. She couldn't believe Erza had just hit her that hard, no matter if she was asleep; could that be counted as domestic abuse? Lucy brushed her cheek; it was throbbing, tender to the touch. Her jaw was so numb she didn't even feel the pain, or notice the blood trickling from her lip. She was hesitant to try and shake Erza awake. So instead, she used her voice.

"Erza...Erza...come on, Erza, stop fooling around...open your eyes..."

Erza swung again. Lucy barely avoided it, being able to see it coming more clearly this time. She shouted Erza's name. Still no answer. Lucy dodged another strike at her face, but she wasn't lucky for long. The bottom of Erza's foot connected with Lucy's stomach. Lucy doubled over. As if somehow sensing that the blonde was wide open, Erza grabbed Lucy's left arm and snapped it, shattering the bone inside. She then reached over, grabbed Lucy by her hair, and tossed her off the bed like a doll. Lucy smacked into the ground, her back hitting the wooden paneling with a scream and a thud. Erza still did not wake up despite such a commotion she was causing.

"Ooh...Erza..." Lucy groaned, before finally, she slipped out of consciousness.

* * *

That next afternoon (since they had spent the morning at the local hospital)...

"I'm so...so...SO sorry, Lucy." Erza sobbed, repeating the phrase for the umpteenth time as she slipped a spoonful of soup through Lucy's lips. The poor woman could not eat anything except liquids or soft foods until her mouth healed. Lucy's stomach and back were wrapped up in gauze, a patch had been applied to the bruised cheek, and a cast kept her left arm concealed. Lucy sighed; she was not angry at Erza, believe it or not. She had forgiven the redhead for the most part, but she wanted to know the reasoning behind the unintentional assault, and if it was possible to stop from happening again. Lucy did not want to end up being sent to ER next time because of her wife's bizarre sleeping behavior.

"Erza...you keep apologizing, but I want to know what caused this. I mean, we've been in the same bedroom before, and I've been around you sleeping, and you've never done something like this before."

Erza blushed, lowering her head. "W-Well...it's happened before, mainly when I slept alone. I sometimes have...err, nightmares, I guess you can call them, about my childhood...the Tower of Heaven, and Jellal trying to kill me...I...I just immediately get the urge to fight back with all my might, to save myself, but...but I was kinda surprised that I ended up destroying my room in the process sometimes."

"Then...when you were around the others, or me...?"

"It's because I felt safe with you all. I knew I didn't have to worry about suffering like that again, because you are all my nakama, you're my family, and you would all protect me with your lives. I've learned this pretty well."

"But then, why last night? I mean, you have me there to keep you company, right?"

"It's because..." Erza sniffled, "I had a nightmare that they were trying to take you away from me."

Lucy couldn't help but smile. "Aww..."

"Although now I'm starting to wonder if I should just let them take you...they probably wouldn't beat you up as much as I have..." Erza sighed. It wasn't hard to tell that it would take a few days, maybe weeks, before she could forgive herself for basically beating her wife into submission. The doctors had been very skeptical of what happened until Lucy made up the excuse of 'tripping down the stairs'.

"I...I think we just need to work at it, really," Lucy grinned sheepishly. She would have given her wife a pat of encouragement if she could have used her hand at the moment. If there was any way she could have put a positive spin on this scenario, it meant Erza refused to ever let her go for anything.


	11. Miss Scarlet's Favorite Student

Lucy Heartfilia, 16 years old, had only just begun her life as a freshman of the academy a month ago, but she'd already found herself a crush.

"Miss Scarlet! Miss Scarlet!"

Lucy called out to her teacher, waving excitedly at her from down the hall. Every now and then she stopped to tug on her skirt; for some reason, she had been given an exceptionally short one. The teacher turned upon hearing her name, and when their eyes met over the hustle and bustle of the busy crowd, Lucy felt her cheeks grow warm. She waved to the teacher one last time as her arm slowly drooped back down to her side. Miss Scarlet was smiling at her; that smile always made her want to melt.

"Hello there, Lucy. How are you doing today?" Miss Scarlet asked her student upon approaching. Miss Erza Scarlet was one of the academy's most famous teachers; popular among the staff as a well-rounded teacher who cared about her students, and popular among her students for her motherly personality and impressive beauty, not to mention bravery. At 25, she was nine years older than Lucy, but the teenager could not fight these feelings of hers, nor did she want to combat them in the first place. She had embraced her desires fully, falling head over heels in love with her attractive teacher. Miss Scarlet herself could not have been less aware of her pupil's earnest affections for her.

"I-I'm doing fine, Miss Scarlet. You?"

"It's been really busy, more than I wish," the teacher chuckled, always one willing to chew the fat with her students, treating them more like her friends than part of her work, "I'm still grading all the papers handed in from that test last week...you remember the one, don't you?"

Lucy's smile crumbled. She recalled that test quite well; she had spent the night before it drinking chocolate milk, rolling around on the bedroom floor in her PJs and attempting (and failing) to write a heartfelt love letter for Miss Scarlet. All of this accumulated in her doing very, very poorly on said test. However, Lucy's memory had limited capacity for such things once they were done, and she had almost entirely forgotten about the test until now. But now the true horror had dawned upon Lucy. A test she did badly on was not going to make her reflect well in her crush's eyes.

Miss Scarlet's plump, kiss-worthy lips curled into a smile. "Speaking of, it's good that you called me over like this. I've graded your test already, actually."

"Y-You did...?"

"Yes, and I must say, you did not do nearly as well as I had hoped you would, Lucy. You usually pay such good attention in my classes."

'That's because I love the sound of your voice so much that I can't help but write down everything you say,' Lucy thought, blushing.

"I'd really hate to have to give you a low grade, though."

"Sorry..." Lucy lowered her head; she wished she could sink into the shadows right now and just disappear.

"For doing so poorly, I may need to set up a special one-on-one session for after school today."

Lucy raised her head, eyes wide and wet. 'What?'

"It took a bit of convincing with the principal, but I'm going to give you a chance to retake your test to get a better grade. You're one of my favorite students, Lucy, and I don't want to see you fail. You've helped me out in a big way, so I think I owe you this…but this is the only time this will ever happen, so I don't want you to squander this second chance by doing something stupid. Make sure you've studied up on the material before 5 today."

Lucy stood there, mouth agape, a pile of words building up in her throat. So many revelations had been thrown at her all at once; it took her a moment to sort them out. She was one of Miss Scarlet's favorite students…she was being given another chance to make up for her test…and…and she had helped the teacher before? As far back as she could think, Lucy couldn't recall if or when she'd ever done anything that helpful to Miss Scarlet aside being an obedient student. Of course, she would have done any task for her beloved's sake, but that opportunity hadn't presented itself yet. What was Miss Scarlet talking about?

"Miss Scarlet-"

Miss Scarlet looked at her watch, exclaiming, "Oh no, I'm running late again! Lucy, make sure to come by my office as soon as school is over, and you can take the test! See you then!"

Lucy tried calling out to her teacher, but Miss Scarlet had already hurried off and around the corner. Now left alone, the blonde teen felt like she was about to collapse and lose consciousness. She had been given a new chance at fixing her grades, and not only that, but a new chance to spend alone time with Miss Scarlet, just the two of them. Lucy wanted to squeal. She could take care of two birds with one stone: the test and confessing her feelings. Lucy looked down at her trembling hands, fingers already blistered from holding pencils for so long.

'I can't mess this up!'

* * *

After several grueling, dragging hours of boring classes, the time had finally come, and Lucy was feeling both giddy as hell and on the verge of upchucking. She sat in the middle seat in the front row of the classroom, directly across from Miss Scarlet, her head dipped down and her pen scribbling at lightning speed across many sheets of paper. Lucy had never found it difficult to focus on her work when she had to, but when she was alone in a classroom like this with Miss Scarlet, and being able to catch the tiniest glimmer of cleavage from her…Lucy was having a damn hard time with the test. She had been able to answer the first few questions on Celestial Spirits (her specialty), but now she couldn't concentrate. She found herself going over the right words to use for her confession after the test. She might never get a chance like this again; she needed to woman up and admit to Miss Scarlet that she was in love with her.

'But…if she rejects me…then what am I supposed to do?' Lucy's brain fizzled. 'I mean, she'll know that I like her, but if she can't return my feelings, it will destroy our friendship…and I don't want to lose that at any cost.'

"Lucy."

Lucy twitched; she looked up to brush gazes with Miss Scarlet.

"You're looking a little pale. Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine…sorry, Miss Scarlet…"

"It's alright. Just keep working at it, Lucy; I'm sure you'll pass."

"Thank you…"

Lucy got back to working on her test, knowing she needed to put it first. It didn't take her long, as her better awareness of the answers helped her speed through it. Now it was time to steel herself for the truly difficult part of this test. Lucy rose from her seat, paper in hand. She tried to keep her legs steady as she approached Miss Scarlet's desk. She handed the test over to her teacher, who looked up at her with an expecting gaze. Lucy started blushing against her own wishes.

"Well...thank you very much, Lucy. I'll grade it and let you know as soon as I can."

"Thank you for giving me this chance, Miss Scarlet."

"It's no problem at all, Lucy. I'm happy to help you." Miss Scarlet smiled back, although just what her expression meant at that moment, Lucy wasn't entirely sure. Lucy couldn't let that psyche her out though.

"Um, Miss Scarlet, c-can I tell you something?"

"Yes? What is it, Lucy?"

Lucy took a deep breath. "I...I...I think I'm in love with you...I mean, I know I'm in love with you...although we're both girls, and you're older than me, and everything else-"

"Lucy, are you trying to tell me you love me, or are you trying to disprove it at the same time?" Miss Scarlet asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously.

"I'm...I'm saying that I love you..."

"Heh." Miss Scarlet rose from her chair, and walked around her desk so she could stand directly in front of the younger woman. She suddenly stretched her arms out, slinking them around Lucy's waist. The teen gasped, but she didn't dare try to fight back. She let herself be pulled into Miss Scarlet's sweet embrace; her peach-colored cheeks were wrapped into the older woman's generous bust. Miss Scarlet placed a simple kiss on the top of Lucy's forehead. Lucy felt like she was going to faint again. Miss Scarlet brought her lips down to the edge of Lucy's ear, whispering.

"You're a silly one, Lucy. When I said that you helped me before...it's because you gave me a reason to want to keep teaching and coming back here, so I could see you..."

* * *

"...That's a pretty interesting dream." Erza frowned.

"It was just a personal fantasy from a while back, nothing more," Lucy chuckled bashfully. The two young women were sitting on Lucy's bed together, staring up at the ceiling, doing nothing but talking about past dreams and thoughts they'd had. Erza had already spilled about her prior interests in making Jellal wear maid uniforms, but it seemed that Ultear and Meredy had already fulfilled that fantasy of their own. Erza had bought a folder worth of photos off of them.

"Still...isn't it all kinda cliche? And pretty damn lucky that I would return the affections of a student, especially considering you made me nine years older than you! That's a lot of specifics for fantasy!"

"L-Like I said, it was a personal fantasy. Of course it wouldn't come true, not now." Lucy tried to wave it off, embarrassed enough as she was from having to talk about it.

"Hmm..."

Erza flicked her wrist, and her body became temporarily enveloped with light. When the light faded, she was dressed as a prime and proper teacher, complete with knee-length skirt, buttoned-up shirt, and a pair of spectacles perched on the bridge of her nose. Lucy's face turned pale.

"Does this look anything like what you wanted?"

Lucy climbed out of bed. "Let me get the school uniform in my closet."

Erza chuckled; sometimes, her lover was an easy one to please, and she was grateful for that.


	12. Erza and Lucy Act Weird

It was morning, and Erza was brushing her hair when Lucy, still half-asleep, lazily sauntered into their shared bedroom.

"Hey, Erza..."

"Oh, hi, Lucy. I'll be ready for breakfast in a moment. You went and took a shower just now, right?"

"Yeah..." Lucy walked up behind Erza, and draped her arms over the older woman's shoulders, her own hair mixing with Erza's. She hadn't tied it up into pig-tails yet, so it hung limply, like a batch of smooth, silky golden noodles. Erza smiled as she placed her hairbrush down on the counter. She stared at Lucy's face reflecting in the mirror for a few seconds. Lucy pressed her face into Erza's scalp, and sure enough, she began sniffing her lover's hair.

"L-Lucy...?"

"Your hair...it smells kinda like melons..."

"Melons?"

"Yeah...fresh melon...that's a good thing."

"Um, if you say so?"

Lucy resumed sniffing Erza's hair, running her fingers through the strands, and occasionally letting her tongue slip out too. Erza was a little concerned, but she didn't feel too upset by it. Instead, she took herself a handful of Lucy's own lovely locks. She took a deep whiff of Lucy's hair; it smelled like scented soap, strawberries. Erza figured it would be that smell, because it came from her favorite brand of shampoo. She had sniffed Lucy more times than she could recall, usually when the blonde woman wasn't aware of it, so she easily recognized all of Lucy's scents. Erza took in another hard, long breath. She loved her girlfriend's hair so much, she could almost call herself 'obsessed' with it.

Suddenly, Erza felt something wet enveloping her head. It felt like...chewing.

"Lucy, are you slobbering all over my hair again?"

There was a muffled apology in response. Erza sighed in a 'oh, what can you do' sort of way.

"I think we should stop and get dressed for the day."

So they did.

* * *

Lucy stepped forth and raised the great sword overhead, her body protected in a complete set of Erza's Heart Kreuz armor. In spite of her soft facial features and pigtail hair, she was still able to make herself appear considerably formidable when wearing such a guise. A few feet away sat Erza, wearing Lucy's outfit instead and barely able to contain the burgeoning smile on her face.

"Fear not, my fair and beautiful lady! With my sword, I shall smite the beast that burdens you so, and then, I shall carry you back to my bed chambers, where I shall strip you and deflower you posthaste, and make you into my sweet lover!"

"...Is that really how you think I talk?" Erza asked.

"W-Well, it's basically what you said before we had...you know...the first time," Lucy blushed.

"I'm pretty sure you got it all wrong."

"Oh? Then how do you think **I** sound usually?"

Erza swooned, bringing a pale arm up to her head, pressing her wrist to her forehead. "Oh, no! I'm Lucy, and my Celestial Spirits aren't working out like I'd hoped! I'm in so much danger! Save me, Erza, save me! I have a whip to fight back but I don't know how to use it for some reason!"

"Oh...oh yeah? That's what you think I'm like?" Lucy sputtered, so upset that she could hardly get her words out for a moment, before deciding two could play at that game, "Well, I'm Erza, and I like to wait until the last possible second before I bring out a new sword magic technique I pulled straight from my ass, and it's always something totally perfect for the occasion, but if I had brought it out earlier not as many people would be hurt right now! Deus ex machina!"

"That's what you think, eh?" Erza jumped to her feet and stormed over to Lucy with her fists clenched tight enough to bleed. She had her lips stretched out into a half-smile half-snarl, an odd gesture that seemed like she was about to either start raging or fly into a fit of giggling laughter. Her sword still raised, Lucy did not let trembling legs or loosening bowels convince her to back down.

"Y-Yeah...that's what I think! And is that what you think of me?"

"I can tell you what I think of you. I think..."

Erza snatched up her sword out of Lucy's hand, threw it back onto the bed, and took the terrified young woman along with her down onto the floor. Erza brought her face in close and, just when Lucy thought she was about to get it, she kissed her girlfriend on the lips. For some reason, the redhead's saliva tasted sweet, but Lucy didn't mind. When Erza pulled away, she was smiling fully again, as if a faucet had been turned on, and all that scariness and anger just seeped out of her.

"...That you're cute." Titania concluded.

Lucy, red-faced and sweating, could only take this as a good sign. "Umm...okay? Erza, you're a little weird to get sometimes."

Erza snickered before kissing Lucy again.

"But never talk to me about 'deus ex machina' again. And don't worry; I don't mind having to save you all the time, my dear."

"Okay..."

* * *

Later that day, Erza sat down at one of the many tables in Fairy Tail's dining hall, a plate of fresh strawberry cheesecake in her hands. She raised her fork and proceeded to pounce upon it like a hungry beast. The other girls present were actually a little intimidated from watching the Titania simply eat her cake.

"That looks pretty good," Cana remarked, taking a swig of alcohol and coughing.

"Yeah, I found it in the fridge today, back at the apartment," Erza chuckled in between frosting-covered bites, "I decided to save it for lunch, so I brought it over here. Heh heh, it was the last piece too!"

"You got that...for your apartment? The one you share with Lucy?" Mirajane's eyes widened, her voice dropping as if she were spilling some kind of dark secret.

Erza shrugged. "Yeah?"

"Erza!" Lucy's voice shrieked from the guild's front doors. It was a single word, just one word, erupting out of the girl's so loudly that it could be heard over the massive din of noise that usually filled the hall, like an air horn suddenly going off. Everyone gave pause to draw their attention onto the seething young woman. Lucy sniffled, charging over at Erza like a furious bull, before stopping just two inches in front of her. Lucy raised her hand high. Erza smiled at her.

"Hey, there, Lu-"

"You stole my cake! The one I'd been saving all this time!" Lucy screeched. She slapped her palm across Erza's face with all of the strength she could muster. The contact of skin upon skin rang out. The onlookers gasped or let their jaws drop in shock. Erza remained still, her head only moved slightly from the hit. A beat passed, and Erza resumed eating the cake, as if nothing had happened at all.

"...Lucy, are you mad at me?"

"You ate my cake, Erza! I told you that I was saving it for a special occasion!"

"You would yell at me over a cake? You would SLAP me over a cake?" Erza asked, still eating the cake all the while.

"Stop eating it!" Lucy whined.

"Lucy, calm down!"

"I've been holding off eating cake for ages because I was staying on a diet so I would look good for you! I had been looking forward to eating it finally as a reward for my hard work!" Lucy slapped Erza again. The redhead was unfazed.

"Lucy-"

"Stop!" Lucy slapped her again.

"Hey now-"

"Stop it!" Lucy hit Erza twice in a row. Her slaps were about as effective as if she were hitting a brick wall. Erza was simply too strong for her.

"Look, I can make it up to you!"

"You're such a jerk, Erza!" Lucy slapped and punched Erza as much as she could, her arms flailing about like a madwoman. No one tried to stop her, but they'd never seen the Celestial Mage go into a such a rampage before; she was usually kind and gentle. Even more so, they were concerned about Erza's reaction to this. Erza allowed her lover to hit her as much as she pleased until she wore herself out, and Lucy sank down onto her knees, panting and heaving. Her hands were throbbing red; she had never known someone's head could be so hard. Erza finished off the remainder of the cake, put it aside, and pulled up Lucy into a gentle hug.

"I'm sorry for taking your cake, Lucy,"

"Don't...take things without asking...dummy..." Lucy panted into Erza's shoulder.

"I'm sorry. Look, I'll buy you a whole cake tonight. You can eat it yourself, and I won't say a word in complaint."

"Erza..." Lucy started laughing despite herself, even though she felt like her lungs were full of smoke, "I...I couldn't...eat that much cake...even if I tried..."

"We'll see. We'll see. Now I know what'll help you with all that stress bundled up inside of you. It's my fault that you're like this, so I'll do my part and take responsibility for my actions."

"You...better..."

Erza pat Lucy a few times on the back, and stood up, cradling Lucy as if she were a giant baby. Erza and Lucy left the guild hall like this.


	13. Minerva's Advice

The sun had only just risen, but Fairy Tail's nominated 'cutest couple' was already going at it. Erza nipped, sucked and licked at Lucy's pink nipple, as if she expected sugary frosting to come bubbling out.

"Ah...E-Erza...mm..." Lucy inhaled and exhaled sharply, her face drenched red, trying harder and harder to keep herself from hitting that pleasurable point just yet. Erza pressed her head even deeper into her lover's cleavage. She was a hungry girl, and she let it show unabashedly. Lucy held Erza's head in her arms. Lucy's left tit was already dripping wet, but her right breast was no less ignored, being carefully massaged by the Titania's greedy fingers. She twisted and teased the other nipple until it was swollen and stiff, ready for suckling a few minutes later.

Erza seemed determined to go great lengths to produce even the tiniest droplet of milk for her to feed on. Lucy held no objections; her sensitive breasts needed some good stimuli now and then. She could, with only mild embarrassment, put breast-feeding second on list to actually having sex itself.

They continued their fun for another minute, but then Erza raised her head, releasing the nipple. "Hey, Lucy...?"

"Erza...now...right now isn't the time..." Lucy would usually gasp out Erza's name a few times, but aside from that, she hated making real conversation during sexual activities; it was too much of a distraction. Erza wiped off the stray saliva with the back of her hand. The fire was still raging hot in Lucy's lower body, however.

"I want to ask you something," Erza said.

"Please...just keep going..."

"It's kinda about what we're doing right now."

"Shit, Erza...couldn't you wait until after you finished...?" Lucy hissed.

"It came to me just now, so I don't want to risk forgetting about it later."

"Gah..." Lucy sat up on bed, thrusting her shirt back down, aggravation clear on her face, "Okay, fine...what is it, Erza?"

"Lucy..."

"Yeah?"

"Don't you think...that I'm the one who initiates sex and foreplay a little too often?"

"...What?" Lucy's face started to turn red again, and she wasn't even being touched.

Erza reached out and took Lucy's tiny hands into her own. "Lucy, I know you're used to be the bottom, and I'm even used to being the top and being the one who leads, but...I want you to try and dominate me, for one time anyway. Chains, whips, hitting, biting, whatever you want, I'll be fine with it. Don't you think that could make things a little more interesting in bed, at least for a while?"

All of the crimson in Lucy's cheeks melted away, leaving behind snow-white, pale skin on her face. Dominating Erza...why did that seem both so horrendously terrifying and so heart-poundingly hot at the same time?

"Okay...do you...do you want to try that, Lucy?" Erza had put on her big 'baby kitten' eyes at full force.

Lucy could only swallow her spit, push back down her throbbing heart, and nod her head.

Erza's face "Good! Now, then, back to what we were up to earlier...!" The redhead gleefully stripped Lucy of her shirt before lunging for those perky, delectable nipples for the second time. Unfortunately, Lucy couldn't get into it as much as before, not with her mind swirling for ideas on how to properly fulfill Erza's strange request.

* * *

Later that day, Lucy had relayed the information to her friends, in particular, Levy, Cana and Mirajane, who were all quite familiar with the sex life of Lucy and her redheaded lesbian lover, whether they had ever wanted to know about it in the first place or not.

"She said she wants me to be 'on top', but I don't know how that would even work. I mean, I can't just grab her and start making out with her...she'd probably hit me."

"Umm...t-this probably isn't something we should be talking about, Lucy..." Levy's face was almost redder than Lucy's had been earlier that day. She and Gajeel had been going out for a little while lately, but she was pretty tight-lipped about their relationship, and the talk of sex especially made her anxious. She was a very innocent girl, in both body and mind.

Cana, however, sat comfortably on the opposite end of the 'innocence' spectrum. "Lucy, if the biggest of your problems in your love life right now is fulfilling Erza's weird, kinky sex domination dream, then you've got it made! It's probably the easiest kind of fetish out there; you don't gotta worry about the after-morning shame or cleaning up, and it's actually plausible to reality! All you gotta do is jump her and hit her in all the sweet spots, she'll go down in seconds! Besides, if you can take down the Titania in bed...then that would make you the strongest woman in Fairy Tail, right?" she chuckled, taking a swig of orange juice. Mirajane refused to give her any more alcohol until she paid off her lengthy tab.

"I don't want to hurt her...or overdo it like that..." Lucy winced. "But I really want to make tonight special for us too...ugh, who knew having sex could be so complicated?"

"Lucy...you're starting to make the other customers uncomfortable with your constant talk about sex, so please, try to tone it down a little, okay?" Mirajane told her with an unnaturally happy smile. It was the thinnest mask covering malice Lucy had ever seen. She looked around; there was no one else sitting at the counter beside her, Levy and Cana.

"Don't worry about her, Lu. Mirajane's been kind of a dry spell in the dating scene lately, so she's a little bitter...not to mention her old crush on Erza and so on and so on..." Cana whispered into the blonde's ear.

Lucy didn't want to get on the bad side of Mirajane; she could be even scarier than Erza, if the right buttons were pushed. She stood up from her stool. "I think I should go and find some help elsewhere."

"What? We're not good enough?"

"No, it's not that...well, a little bit of that, but that's because I need someone who really knows about this whole 'domination' kind of thing."

"Who're you going to ask? Porlyusica? Lord knows how many times she's had to force our bones back into our bodies after some very tough missions..."

"No, no," Lucy shook her head, "I have someone better in mind, but..." 'It's pretty dangerous. I could end up with a few broken limbs.' Lucy thought the last part to herself. She gulped. For both Erza's pleasure and her own, she would take the necessary risks.

* * *

It didn't take long for Lucy to arrive at the Sabertooth Guild; just a quick chariot ride to the other side of town. She was immediately picked up by one of the guards outside, and brought directly to the sharp-fanged queen herself, flanked by both Sting and Rogue as part of the audience.

"You're that punching bag of a Celestial Mage from Fairy Tail, aren't you? What are you doing here?" Minerva clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Do you have some kind of business with me?"

"Umm..y-yes, well, I was hoping you could...help me...with a little something..." It was not like Lucy wasn't aware that what she was asking verged on the impossible, but she had to try it. She just had to. Minerva was a woman who clearly got off from hurting other people, Lucy being able to attest to that personally. Lucy didn't intend to go as far as she did, but a few pointers and tips would have been a good push to figuring out how to satisfy Erza.

The glare in Minerva's eyes could have rivaled the sharpness of Kagura's city-destroying blade. "You expect me to help you? For free? There are many suspicious aspects in this request worth questioning, but right now, I am most concerned about what you intend for payment."

"Oh, no, I can pay you!" Lucy took out several wads of jewels.

Minerva looked Lucy over, examining the girl's childish face, her plush thighs, and, especially, her generous bust. Yes, she was a pitiful opponent, but when it came to looks alone, she could have been put side to side with her precious Yukino-chan. A real gem of a cutie. The Sabertooth Queen smirked, running her tongue along her full, red lips. "You know, if you'd like, we could agree on another kind of payment that I have in mind..."

"I don't think my girlfriend would like that," Lucy shook her head.

"What? You have a girlfriend...? You?" Minerva had a bad feeling about this.

"Yeah, she's another member of Fairy Tail with me...Erza Scarlet." Lucy knew it was a bitch move, especially for a goody-good like herself, but she couldn't stop grinning at the look on Minerva's face from dropping her lover's name. All of Minerva's cockiness, all of her sass and bravado, crumbled in the wake of that one name. What kind of villain would she be, if she could easily forget the one who humiliated her greatly before the eyes of millions? She had been so close, just the twist of a knife away from victory, yet that blasted redhead whore had made a sudden recovery, an ass-pull if you will, and taken her down with some kind of super-powered armor. Minerva would never forget the feeling of cold, hard floor hitting her back. If there was anyone she wanted to avoid contending with right now, it was definitely Erza.

"You...you think you can threaten me, eh?" Minerva gasped out after a minute, although her teeth chattered a little as she spoke. She was determined to keep her dignity, of course, even in the eyes of a girl she thought of as nothing but an ant.

"I'm just saying that you should avoid doing anything bad to me, or Erza will come here right away. I'm still willing to pay you for your help, though. I'm not going to make you do this for free." Lucy wasn't going to stoop down to Minerva's level, although in a way, she already was planning on doing so, for Erza.

"...Very well..."

"Yay!"

"What exactly do you need me for, when you already have that damn Titania on your side?"

Lucy started to blush. "I want you to teach me...how I can be more in control and authoritative! I want to be dominant over Erza! In bed, that is..."

Sting and Rogue visibly paled. They had known Minerva longer than most people, and they also knew, without a doubt, that this poor girl didn't know what she was getting into, asking to learn about something like 'dominance'. Minerva was a total sadist, that much was obvious. Still, they couldn't dare open their mouths and warn the girl to run, to run as far away as she possibly could.

Minerva herself seemed surprised at first, but then a tiny little idea popped into her head. She couldn't get away with physically hurting Lucy or holding her hostage, that was true...but she could get away with teaching the girl so well that Erza would be a victim as result. Minerva couldn't stop smiling.

"I believe I can help you with that. I could almost say I'm flattered you chose to come to me out of any of your little fairy friends. I'll even allow you to borrow one of my dresses and a few other accessories if you'd like."

"Eh? Really? You...you would? Do I need to pay extra or something?" Lucy knew that there had to be a catch, but she couldn't tell what it was. Minerva shook her head.

"No, you can have them for free. I was going to throw them out anyway."

* * *

Later that day, Erza was sitting on Lucy's bed in her apartment, reading through her girlfriend's novel drafts. Lucy had always told her to leave them alone, but she wasn't around right now, and Erza couldn't help herself. She had heard small bits about the work in progress, but never anything concrete.

'I never realized Lucy had such a fixation on peoples' butts in her stories...' the redhead mused.

Suddenly, the door exploded. It didn't just open, or fall down. It literally exploded in a burst of metal and wood debris. Erza jumped. She threw the notebook aside, leaping for her sword propped up against the wall. Understandably, she had believed it was an enemy, attacking her when her guard was down. However, as the dust cleared, Erza's grip around the blade's hilt softened some. It was Lucy...at least, she thought that it was her.

"Lucy?"

Lucy strutted her way into the room, one high heel in front of the other. Her hair was tied up in buns, similar to Minerva's own hair style. She wore one of the Chinese-styled dresses Minerva had worn in the early rounds of the Grand Magic Games, hence the reason the Sabertooth Queen had intended to throw it out, along with one of her feather boas. Lucy had her lips coated with a thick layer of blood-red lipstick, and eyeliner dashed across her eyes to give her a mature look. She stared down Erza with a stare that could only be read as sadistic lust. Erza blinked; she could swear she was being confronted by a blonde Minerva right now.

"Erza...I want you to strip." Lucy demanded.

"W-What?"

"You want me to be on top this time, right? I'm ready and waiting." Lucy stepped in closer. She carried a long, glistening whip in her right hand.

"But...but I'm not really in the mood right now..." Erza tried to come up with any excuse she could.

Lucy cracked her whip against the floor, hitting the wood panels so hard that it left a crack. "Strip. Now."

"Lucy, this really isn't funny-"

Lucy raised her foot and brought it down upon Erza's crotch, burying the heel deep inside her. Erza cried out.

"I can shove it in deeper, but I'll only stop unless you do what I say. Anyway, this is what you wanted, isn't it, Erza? I just don't understand why you seem so reluctant..."

"L...Lucy..." Erza panted; her lover was missing the point entirely. They weren't supposed to be engaging in violent S&M acts like this. Erza just wanted Lucy to be the one to lead the sex, nothing more than that. However, now that she had a high heel shoved up her, she wasn't exactly in an arguing mood.

"Let's start."

Lucy removed Erza's shirt with a swipe, and the girl's bra as well, letting her tits hang out. Erza's breasts were larger than Lucy's, but only by a single cup size. She proceeded to tie the breasts together with her whip, constricting them, and through it all, the famous Titania could do nothing but lie there and take it.

It took some time later for Minerva's brainwashing to eventually wear off, but after that, Erza had to spend a few days at Porlyusica's place to recuperate. The Sabertooth Guild headquarters was set on fire the week after; no one was hurt, but there were never any arrests made for the arsonist responsible. However, there were several eyewitness accounts of a woman wearing the Fairy Tail insignia on her right hand.


	14. Her Protector

Out on the playground, just a young child in school, Lucy Heartfilia usually liked to keep to herself. She sat far separated from the other groups of children, content with watching them instead of joining the fun. That was normal for her. Lucy was a little less friendly around the other kids. She talked to Natsu, Gray and Levy sometimes, but she wasn't too close to them friend-wise.

"Hey! You!"

Lucy quietly stared as Juvia and Cana drew near, neither girl looking like all sunshine and smiles about seeing her. They were both quite angry, especially Juvia. Lucy hadn't even seen tomatoes that had the same consistency of red that was present on Juvia's face.

"Hey!"

"Y-Yes...?" Lucy didn't understand why Juvia kept repeating herself. This was one girl Lucy never wanted to be alone on a play-date with. According to a conversation she overheard from her parents, the curly-haired foreign girl was a bit of a 'bad egg'. Lucy didn't know what that phrase meant exactly, but she did know that rotten eggs smelled, so she knew to make that sort of connection to Juvia. She was smelly, and thus, bad. On the contrary, Lucy didn't know anything about Cana. They had interacted once or twice, but they weren't friends.

"I saw what you did at lunchtime yesterday!" Juvia shouted at her.

"W-What did I do?"

"You were sharing your crackers with Gray!"

"But Gray was hungry," Lucy whimpered back in defense, "I...I was just sharing, like the teachers taught us to do...!"

"I'm the one who's supposed to give Gray crackers! He's my boyfriend and no one else's!"

"Boyfriend?"

"I fell in love with him first!"

"Umm...okay..."

"So that means you can't talk to him at all! Don't give him food, either! That's my job!"

"Yeah!" Cana finally spoke up, but for it to be a one-word agreement, it was difficult to discern her exact reasons for helping Juvia in the first place. Cana seemed to be going along with this because she too was afraid of Juvia; Cana was good friends with girl, but she also knew what a fiery temper she had when it came to her 'boyfriend' Gray. Cana kept her position behind Juvia with a glare frozen on her face, like a temperamental parrot ready to squawk whatever its master wanted to hear.

"I'm sorry..." Lucy didn't know what else to say but an apology. She had never meant any harm; she had just wanted to help out one of her friends, that was all.

Unfortunately, Juvia was a girl not satisfied with words alone. Her hand lunged out, grabbing a clump of Lucy's hair and tugging it hard. Lucy shrieked. It hurt more than she had thought it would, and tears began filling up her eyes. Juvia pulled even harder.

"Leave Lucy alone already, you little brat!"

When Cana turned her head in the direction of this new voice, she took off in the other direction, as if she'd suddenly remembered she left a pot roast burning in the oven. Juvia and Lucy were too stunned to do much else but remain frozen in place, with Juvia's hand still clenched around Lucy's locks. Erza Scarlet wasn't looking too happy with them right now.

"Stop picking on Lucy! She didn't do anything wrong!" Erza shouted, her voice booming like a lion's. She was only a year older than Juvia and Lucy, but even as a young girl, she was especially intimidating when upset. It had been known across the playground that she beaten Mirajane in a scuffle two weeks ago, and everyone had grown to be wary around her. Lucy had never talked to Erza before, but in her opinion, she was very pretty.

"She's...she's trying to take Gray from me!" said Juvia. Her heart's desire for revenge was overriding her brain's desire for self-preservation.

"No, she's not! You're just being paranoid! Gray said he doesn't even like like you! Now let her go!"

"I won't-"

Erza whacked Juvia across the nose with a well-placed punch. Juvia tumbled backward onto the asphalt, and her grip released, allowing Lucy to run over to Erza's side for protection. It had only taken one hit to ruin Juvia's disposition, and to change her from a violent, cackling hyena to a sobbing, little lamb. Blood coated her button-nose, but it wasn't a continuous nosebleed, just an eruption of internal fluids from the initial hit. Wailing like crazy, Juvia covered her face with her hands, shouting Erza's name in a sort of cough-grumble before racing to the nearest teacher. Erza sighed.

"Now I'm going to get in trouble again..."

"Why did you hit her?" Lucy asked.

Erza looked down at her wide-eyed admirer. "Because she was picking on you. I should have helped you sooner, but I had really thought she'd go away. I'm sorry."

"Thank you." Lucy stood on her tip-toes and kissed her hero on the cheek. She had seen it in movies before, and she figured it was a good way to show her appreciation. She would never have done this with anyone else, but for some reason, being around this girl suddenly made her feel brave and confident enough to get away with it. Erza's jaw dropped, her whole face turning several shades brighter. Lucy giggled.

"Y...You're welcome..." Erza stammered out.

"Do you think...we could be friends?" Lucy asked.

"You're not afraid of me?"

"No. I think you're really nice! If I get picked on, no one ever helped me before, but now you can! Can we be friends?"

"Yeah, sure. We can be friends." Erza nodded. She was still trying to calm down after that unexpected peck on her skin. It had definitely surprised her, but...it also made her feel really good, really happy and warm, on the inside. It was very odd, and it was very new. She'd been kissed on the cheek by family members in the past, but she'd always despised such acts; they'd never made her feel like this before.

A few minutes later, Erza was apprehended by a teacher for 'bullying'. There was no lengthy discussion; she was quickly suspended for her misbehavior. Lucy did not see Erza again for three weeks, but when the redhead finally returned to her desk, Lucy was the first one to welcome her back. They both had a friend for each other now, and neither girl could be happier.

* * *

Some years later...

17-year-old Lucy Heartfilia had heard time and again how dangerous it was to pass through the city alleyways at night, even if you just wanted to get to the street on the other side. She had been told how easy people could pop out of the shadows to assault her. Lucy had shrugged it off as the fears of paranoid parents; she never believed it would happen to her, it would always happen to someone else instead. Unfortunately, with her eyes focused on the broad knife in the mugger's hand, Lucy realized that, in retrospect, she was just 'someone else' too.

"Hand it over." the man spoke in hushed, rapid tones. He was trying to be quick; it didn't seem like he was going for rape, only the money.

"I..."

"Hand it over. The purse."

Lucy didn't want to give up her purse, obviously, but it was obviously a better alternative than getting her face cut open like orange slices. She started to hold out her bag as her offering, and the thug proceeded to take it-

However, he only managed to grab the handle of the purse when he took a rather abrupt fall into the dirt, courtesy of a rusty folding chair. He was out like a light. Erza Scarlet stepped over the unconscious man's body, tossing the dirty chair back into the alley corner where she had found it. Foam was dribbling out of the mugger's mouth. She snatched the purse up and tossed it over to Lucy, who still stood in place with her eyes bigger than dinner plates.

"Erza...you..." Lucy gaped.

"Sorry for showing up late. I...I had a weird feeling like you were in trouble, so I went looking for you." Erza replied, keeping her back turned to Lucy. She started heading out of the alleyway.

"I mean, I was just walking over to the cafe to meet up, but you still came and saved me!" Lucy chased after her.

"Of course I would, Lucy. You think I'd just let you get hurt?"

"I mean, yeah Erza, you could be a little quicker with your sudden entrances, true, but you saving me like this, this isn't the first time it's happened...I'm starting to believe you're actually a guardian angel in disguise sent to protect me!" Lucy giggled. She took Erza's hand into her own, and gave it a loving squeeze.

"I've sworn myself to protect you no matter what...because I love you." Erza smiled at her.

"Well, here's your reward, then." Instead of a quick tap on the cheek, Lucy gingerly wrapped her lips around Erza's, holding the kiss for a few seconds. They couldn't keep kissing for much longer, or else it would become too hard to stop, and they knew that they needed to save all of their pent-up sexual energy for the bedroom. Not to mention it kinda bothered everyone around them. The two girls broke apart from their smooch, and they smiled at each other with wide happy grins.

Erza had protected Lucy again and again, many times since their first meeting, and most likely many more times after today. However, she would never grow tired of it, because being able to see her beloved smile back at her made it worth any amount of risk or effort. She was quite content with the moniker of being a 'guardian angel'.

However, despite telling herself all of that, Erza also wasn't against the idea of having to put the girl on a leash if it meant keeping her from falling down a manhole or tussling with the mafia every damn day. Either or, really.


	15. Erza's Courage

"Lucy...?" A nudge against Lucy's rib.

Lucy winced; she'd just been woken up. It was completely dark. It must have been midnight, or even early morning. "E...Erza?"

"You awake?"

"Erza...what's," Lucy paused to yawn, "What is it?" she sat up in bed.

Erza placed a hand on Lucy's arm, squeezing so tight it almost hurt the blonde. "I need you to do something for me...okay?"

"What?"

"I need...I need to pee. Can you walk with me to the bathroom and wait outside the door? It's really dark and I'm...err, afraid."

Lucy sighed. She couldn't believe this. Pulling off the covers, dressed in only her underwear, she climbed out of bed and let her feet touch the cold floor. Erza wasted no time climbing out of bed too. Her face was pulled back into a tight-faced frown, her lips kept tight and her eyes bulging wide with that familiar feeling of inexplicable terror. There was some relief to be found that her shameful, blush-red face could be hidden from her girlfriend's view, thanks to the very darkness she feared.

"C'mon..." Lucy called her over.

"I'm sorry, Lucy. I'm pathetic...I'm truly pathetic..."

"Erza, stop it. You're not pathetic." Lucy took Erza's hand into her own and ran her thumb up and down her palm, trying to soothe her. Unfortunately Erza wasn't so easy won over by those tricks, even though she liked them usually, because her frantic mind was far more distracted envisioning what sort of horrible monstrosities lay hidden behind the cloak of nightfall. If she stared hard enough, she could almost make out a pair of floating, golden orbs watching her from the kitchen. She shivered.

"I am pathetic." Erza insisted, "How many warriors like me would end up needing to be walked to the bathroom at night because they were afraid of imaginary monsters hiding in the dark? My whole life is ruined, Lucy. I know that there's nothing out there, but...but then there's all these thoughts starting to pop up in my head, and something like dread and fear...I can't take it."

"Erza, when we go back to bed, you can hold onto me as tight as you want to. We'll also go visit Porlyusica tomorrow to see if we can get a cure, okay? I'm not going to leave you like this."

"O-Okay. Thank you, Lucy. I love you."

"I love you too."

They stopped in front of the bathroom. With a quick nod, Erza rushed past Lucy, snapped on the lights, and closed the door behind her. Lucy stood up against the door, with her arms crossed. She yawned again; Erza had been sapped of her courage by some kind of dark magic spell a week ago, and already she felt like she was being driven up the wall with how much of a scaredy-cat her lover had become. Lucy didn't hate Erza for it, she certainly couldn't blame her for it either, but it disheartened her somewhat to see the lovely and courageous Titania need someone to walk her to the bathroom like this. Lucy had to figure out some way to get Erza back to normal, and fast. Porlyusica might be able to help.

Unfortunately, it seemed that not everyone in the guild thought the same way she did. Eventually, morning came, and the two women went to the guild hall for breakfast.

"Oi!"

"Oi Oi!"

"Oi Oi Oi!" Natsu thrust his fist into Gray's face, knocking the ice mage back.

"Oi Oi Oi Oi!" Gray retaliated by kicking Natsu in the abdomen. Unfortunately, the young man's abs halted the blow.

"What're those two doing?" Lucy asked as she watched the two men fly into a nearby table, sending up a cloud of dust and wooden debris.

"Oh, they've really gotten out of hand without Erza being able to stop them. We keep telling them to stop but, well, boys will be boys." Mirajane giggled. She kept a smile stretched out on her beautiful face, in spite of her bar being torn apart by the pair of ingrates. Lucy shivered, being able to sense that hidden malice masked by her grin.

"But...but why do they keep saying 'oi' like that-"

"Never mind that. Do you know what you'll do about Erza?"

Natsu and Gray weren't the only ones causing trouble. In fact, some of the people in the guild found it easier to act out and misbehave without the Titania breathing down their necks with her strict adherence to the rules. There were those who had never gotten along with Erza, and took sign of her new-found wimpiness as a sign of good fortune. At least it left more S-rank missions open for mages who were strapping for cash, certainly unlike Erza.

"Well, I was thinking-" Lucy looked around, and she was rather stunned to find her redhead had disappeared from her stool, "Wait, where did she go?"

"She dived under that table when she heard Natsu and Gray's fighting," Mirajane pointed over to the table behind Lucy, and sure enough, there was a trembling figure in armor, huddled in a fetal position. Lucy sighed.

"I wanted to bring her to Porlyusica, to see if she can do something to reverse the effects. I hate having to ask her for help all the time, but she's the only one we can rely on when it comes to healing..."

"Porlyusica says she can't help you. It's not that kind of reversible spell."

"W-What?"

Mirajane handed Lucy a note. "She sent this back to the guild after Makarov messaged her on Erza's condition a day ago. We had already thought ahead about asking her, but unfortunately, from what she could tell from the symptoms alone and the identification of the spell, it seems that Erza's lost courage cannot be returned by magical means...you need to spur it back out of her again."

"You mean...get her to be brave all over?"

"Maybe, but Erza trusts you most of all, Lucy, since you two are...are..." Mirajane bit her lip, hating herself for stuttering again like that when it came to stating Lucy and Erza's relationship status. There was still a big part of her, deep down, that had trouble openly admitting she had lost her childhood crush to the new girl. Mirajane had hoped she'd get over it already, but her feelings for Erza had run deep, so it proved a challenging hurdle to leap over.

"Going out." Lucy finished for her. She wasn't offended; she understood Mirajane's feelings.

"Y-Yes. You're definitely someone who can help Erza with this. I wish I could join you, but my work is keeping me."

Lucy hung her head. She didn't like this. She wasn't someone who could be expected to teach about bravery. She was always someone depending on others, whether it was Erza, Natsu, or her Celestial Spirits. She hardly knew a thing about 'courage' as far as she was concerned. "Okay. I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the heads-up about Porlyusica too, Mirajane."

Lucy walked over to Erza and squeezed her ass, forcing the redhead to jump up, her exceptionally hard head sending the table flying without so much as a bump on her own head. Lucy smirked; that always made Erza jump highest. Mirajane, watching from afar, squeezed a glass bottle so tight that cracks formed all over it. Maybe Lucy wasn't the one to depend on for this delicate, delicate mission?

"I'm going to help you get brave again, Erza!" Lucy announced.

"H-How...?" Erza whimpered. She would rather just go back to bed and cuddle with her Lucy-chan.

"We'll go on a mission, of course!"

* * *

Lucy could have picked something easy, like exploring a recently-discovered cave or taking care of some local thugs. However, she knew she needed a mission with just the right amount of action and potential danger, all for the sake of stirring up Erza to take up arms again like before. Makarov had approached her before they left, speaking to her about how if Erza cannot attend missions anymore, the guild will lose a massive amount of its revenue and backing from other guilds and companies, because Erza was so dependable. That meant that, no matter what, Erza needed to stop being a crybaby and start being Titania again.

That was why Lucy decided to bring Erza with her to investigate a recent monster appearance, inside the public river of a small village. It didn't pay much, but taking down any sort of scary threat would look good on FT's records. Plus, a monster might just be the perfect specimen to help Erza regain her lost courage.

"So...this is your village's river?" Lucy asked the old woman beside her, kneeling down before the water. It was so murky and muddy that she couldn't even hope to see the bottom, much less any fish near the surface. She could make out a few tiny, skittering shadows, but she had no idea what they were. She couldn't see any kind of monster.

"Yes...it's very dangerous. You shouldn't get too close. The monster might steal you away, like it did to several others." Despite what she just said, the old woman herself hardly appeared concerned, in fact, she almost seemed bored, like she had been relaying this same message over and over so many times that she'd become uncaring as to whether or not anyone took heed of her warning at all. Lucy frowned. She looked around.

"Where's Erza?"

"Over there."

Lucy groaned; Erza was hiding behind a clump of reeds, her hands over her head.

"Erza!" Lucy stormed over to her, "What are you doing? C'mon, we have work to do here!"

"I...I can't, Lucy...I can't..." Erza stammered.

"What's wrong? And why do you keep huddling up and shivering like that anyway?"

"Lucy, I want to do this job..." Erza stood up, brushing a few reed leaves and a frog off her shoulders, "But...I...I'm so terrified...monsters? Really? Do you think that's going to help me here? I can't even go to the bathroom by myself at night because I'm afraid of monsters! And I saw something moving in the water earlier! It was big, real big! This...this isn't something we can handle by ourselves!"

Lucy sighed, her patience wearing thin by this point. She grabbed Erza around the waist, holding her close so they could touch nose-to-nose.

"Erza, that's the whole point. If you face the monster here and defeat it, you'll be able to get over your fears, I'm sure of it! You've taken down loads of monsters before, haven't you?"

"I...have..."

"Then you should be able to do this! I believe in you, Erza! I love you!" Lucy kissed her. The old woman looked away. Instead, she watched the water, and saw it ripple and churn, a dark shadow the size of a train car approaching the beach. The old woman quickly turned and ran without a word. The shadow started to emerge from the depths. And with it, a tentacle-like appendage.

"Lucy, I love you too..."

"Then you got to do this, for both of us! I'm probably the last person who should be saying this, but Erza...don't ever let your fear hold you back! You can beat anyone if you-"

Lucy's rousing, if not riddled with cliches, speech did not please the abounding monster. It struck Erza first, before the girls could even react, smacking her across the face with a wet, slimy tentacle, enough force put behind it to make the redhead feel like she'd just been thrown into a brick wall. Erza reeled back, her arms slipping away from Lucy's. It was like time had momentarily screeched to a snail's pace, but only for a few seconds. Erza watched as the assaulting tentacle then wrapped itself around Lucy's waist and pulled her right into the river. There was a splash, a burst of sprayed water, and Lucy was gone.

Erza laid on the ground, curled up in fetal position, trembling, shaking. She couldn't even get her mind to stop flipping out for even a second.

'Oh God! Lucy...!'

The old woman grabbed Erza by the arm and tugged her back to her feet. "Hurry! Save her now! Kill that thing! You're a hired mage, aren't you?"

Erza wanted to puke. She staggered forward, armored shoes dragging through the mud, with her eyes fixed squarely on the shadow moving through the stream. She could see a small shadow right behind it; Lucy. She wouldn't be able to last if she was kept underwater, without air, for much longer. Erza started running toward the water. There were so many thoughts rushing about, and she couldn't hold of a single one. Who knew what sort of diseases or carnivorous fish or other nasty things hid underneath the water? What if the monster was too strong for her to handle? What if she couldn't fight it properly underwater? What if...what if it killed Lucy before she could save her?

Erza stopped just as she was less than a foot away from entering the water. The old woman was yelling at her again, but Erza didn't listen to her.

'I don't want to lose Lucy...but I'm so terrified...I can't move...!' Erza's teeth were actually chattering.

Suddenly, the water seemed to burst again, like a geyser, and Taurus came flying out with a motionless Lucy secured under his arm. Erza felt her heart soar and her fear dwindle; Lucy had been able to summon one of her Celestial Spirits before she could drown, and she was able to save herself. The cow-man landed on the bank across from her before gently lowering Lucy onto the ground, preparing to perform CPR.

'I...I almost let her die just then...' Erza's face fell. She couldn't believe herself; her own girlfriend could have drowned, and yet she stood there and watched out of terror? That made her want to puke even more. She dived into the water; she couldn't keep standing around moping, either. If there was anything she could do, it was to try and help Lucy right now, while she was safe. Erza swam as fast as she could, several dozen pounds worth of armor not withstanding.

She caught something out of the corner of her eye. It was the monster, with its slimy, black back emerging from the waves. It was still alive.

'Shit!'

Erza tried swimming even faster. She started yelling for Taurus and warning him about the approaching danger, but he ignored her. He was too preoccupied with Lucy. God help that damn bull if he so much as laid one finger on Lucy's breasts while she was unconscious. Erza felt something oily slip around her waist like a corset. She was pulled under before she knew it. Erza screamed underwater.

At this point, the redhead was able to get a full look at the monster. It was a mass of tentacles and eyes, surely a mouth of sharp teeth hidden somewhere behind it all. It had one of its tentacles holding Erza still as it attempted to drown her, watching her and waiting for the moment to begin feasting. Erza found herself thinking back to, of all times, the day her home village had been attacked, the event that changed her entire life. Even though she had been so young, losing her parents at the same time, she had never felt as much fear as she did right now. It had been an emotion so prevalent in her thoughts these past few days that she could barely even identify anymore. She knew what it was that terrified her most of all, the one thing she could never want to happen in a million and two years: the chance of losing Lucy, or having to leave her. She had nearly failed to save her the first time, but now, she had to take that courageous step forward.

Erza raised her sword. The creature's multiple eyes bulged, now feeling its own brand of fear.

Several minutes later, and Erza reemerged from the river. Taurus had returned to the Celestial world, and Lucy had reawakened, much to the warrior mage's relief. She dropped her sword, fell to her knees in front of Lucy, and hugged her so tight that there might have been a quiet crack or two coming from Lucy's ribs. Lucy was still stunned from her near-death experience, so she said nothing, but she did return the hug.

"The monster's dead." Erza announced. The river's murky brown coloring became a dark shade of red after a few seconds.

"Erza...I'm sorry...I might have..." Lucy coughed, "I think I chose a mission a little too difficult...to help you get your courage back."

"I think there's more I should be apologizing for at this point, but Lucy...God, I'm so glad you're still alive..." Erza kissed her.

Lucy kissed her back, but then she pulled away, making a face. "Uh...please, don't kiss me right now...you taste like dirt, fish and blood all mixed together..." she stuck her tongue out.

"S-Sorry..." Erza grinned sheepishly. She probably shouldn't have used her teeth so much.

"But does this mean that you're finally back to your normal self, Erza?" Lucy asked.

"Hmm...I don't know, really. I found the strength to fight back when I realized you were in danger, and when I thought I was going to die and leave you behind, I fought for that. I was brave, Lucy. Maybe I really am-"

Suddenly, a ball dropped from the overhead bridge, likely the result of a young child not playing carefully. When the ball hit the sand beside the two girls, Erza shrieked. She got back onto her feet and actually charged straight into the river, diving in. Lucy sighed; it might take a while longer for Erza to act her usual self again, after all.


	16. The Littlest Erza

It had been a few days since Natsu, Lucy and the crew had returned from their mission to the frozen village of Giants, and they had successfully averted yet another catastrophe. While investigating for a magical flame, the guildmates had been confronted by a certain mage whose power was capable sapping away one's age, turning them to children; why he had never tried making a fortune by 'youthening' the rich elderly of the world, no one could say.

Minerva also played a part in the whole mess by working alongside the enemy guild. After achieving a rather quick victory over the gang of thugs, as well as releasing the giants from their frozen prison, Natsu, Lucy and Gray were able to return to normal size, as did little Wendy, who had been left as a defenseless baby for a brief period of time.

Unfortunately, Erza, who had been reverted to her childhood before anyone else, was not so lucky. And, by extension, neither was her Celestial Mage girlfriend...

* * *

It was morning, and the guild hall was already packed with people, along with the usual loud banter and clammer of forks and knives to be expected. Lucy approached Mirajane's counter, but she hardly looked like she'd slept a good night; there were black lines underneath her eyes, and her hair was barely combed. Not to mention she had chosen to wear a top that, from the looks of her bulging chest, was a size or two too small.

"Hey, Mirajane," Lucy gave her a limp-wristed wave.

"Good morning, Lucy!" Mirajane beamed, "How are you?"

"I'm okay. Um, can we have some breakfast?"

"Of course! What do you...oh? Do you have Erza with you?"

Lucy nodded, although she looked like she was about to drift off to sleep for a second there. "Yeah, yeah...I got her right here." She pulled out a stool for herself, and then another one before she picked up Erza from off the ground. The tiny redhead had been completely hidden behind the massive counter up until this moment. In her present form, Erza resembled a child even younger than 12-year-old Wendy. She could have been anywhere in the single digits of age.

"Good morning, Erza!" Mirajane squealed. She couldn't help herself; like most of the women in Fairy Tail, as well as a few of the men, Mirajane adored Erza's baby self, and she had taken to teasing her about it almost all the time. When addressing her, the transformation mage would speak in a high-pitched 'baby voice', the kind used in speaking down to someone much, much younger and cuter than you are. However, Erza's mind hadn't been apart of the age regression; only her body was. So this act served to do nothing but agitate the vertically challenged youngster.

"Cut it out, Mirajane," Erza grumbled, "I'm hungry, and I would like to order my breakfast."

"What would you like, dear?"

"Eggs! And toast! And bacon!"

"I'll have the same." Lucy shrugged and sighed.

"Alright then! I'll have two plates ready in just a moment!" Mirajane bowed her head, and with one last giggle at Erza's expense, she walked off. Lucy finally sat down beside Erza, and with one final groan, she slumped her head onto the cool mahogany of the counter. Erza rolled her eyes.

"Buck up already, Lucy! You've been acting like this all morning!" Erza berated her. It was strange, seeing a small child tell off a woman who was likely twice her age.

"I'm tired, Erza..." Lucy groaned.

"I don't know why. I slept like a bab- err, I slept well last night."

Lucy couldn't say what it was that had kept her up all night; it would have been far too humiliating, even if they two girls weren't in the middle of public right now. It had all been her libido's fault. Lucy liked 'unwinding' with Erza after completing life-threatening missions like the last one, probably because of the adrenaline rush it gave her, but there was absolutely not a chance she would have tried it while Erza possessed the physique of a toddler. Lucy was many, many things, but a pedophile wasn't one of them. Still, she spent all night staring at Erza's sleeping face, the masochistic part of her mind daring her to kiss those cute, cherubic cheeks.

Lucy glanced at her pint-sized lover out of her eye's corner. Erza was wearing one of the dresses Wendy had loaned her, although it was still too big for her. A simple red dress that eventually faded into white as it climbed up to the straps on her shoulders, with a cat-faced pin for extra measure. Erza looked pretty cute in it. Lucy wondered how it would look on the redhead when, if, she returned to normal size. No, it would be too small for her. It would reveal too much...

'I miss my Erza...' Lucy wanted to cry. It wasn't just the sex she missed. It was almost everything. The hugs, the kisses, the moral support, the feeling of complete, perfect safety while being held in her arms...but now Erza was more like her daughter than her girlfriend. She was thankful enough that Erza was the same mentally, but if she never grew up again, then how could their romance ever work?

"Hey hey! Lucy! Erza! How're you two doing?" Cana barged in rather rudely; of course, she was drunk, as usual. Lucy wanted to point out how pathetic that was, just for the sake of being mean and letting off some steam, but she bit down on her venomous tongue. She was starting to lose her patience with Cana's crap anyway.

"Hey..." Lucy acknowledged her.

"Good morning, Cana." Erza nodded.

"Oh, well, isn't she polite for someone so young? You're so cute, Erza!" Cana laughed before turning to Lucy, "Hey there, Luce! So, uh, you know, I've been wondering, you two haven't been...sleeping in the same bed at night like before, have you?"

"Of course we have. That's what we always do."

"Ah...I see...oh dear." Cana looked to Erza once more, "Erza, listen to me, if Lucy ever tries to touch your 'special place' down there without permission, then you should come straight to me-"

"Get the hell out of here!" Lucy literally kicked Cana in the ass for that one. The brunette laughed, liquor bubbles popping out of her nose, as she stumbled away from the duo, still laughing even harder once she was out of range from Lucy's flying shoes.

"Lucy, I think you overreacted a little." Erza said.

"Erza...I don't think you're reacting enough to this whole thing at all..." Lucy mumbled under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Hmm..." Erza frowned, although she didn't press further. She was too hungry to really start an interrogation. Maybe afterward.

Mirajane finally returned with their breakfast in hand. She lowered the plates onto the counter, and after handing over a few utensils, she walked away again. Lucy and Erza started to eat. While Lucy ate listlessly and without interest, Erza was scarfing down her food as if it'd just become her last meal for days. Flecks of egg and crumbs of toast were splattered all over her cheeks as she ate. Lucy stopped eating, and she started to lean over to wipe her face, when she realized that that was the last thing she should be doing right now. Lucy quickly resumed eating again, Erza none the wiser.

"Hey! Hey, Erza! Juvia was looking for you!" Juvia came running up to the pair. Followed close behind her were Evergreen and Levy.

"Hmm? What is it, Juvia?" replied Erza.

"Juvia brought you a present; some candy!" The bluenette handed a fancy little bag of chocolate candies over to the little Erza.

"I also have something," Levy added, "It's one of my favorite books!"

"These glasses would look good on you,"

Erza smiled. "Thank you all very much for your gifts!"

"Awwwwww, she's so cute~!" Juvia, Levy and Evergreen squealed all at the same time.

Lucy kept eating; she needed to ignore them, they were just the fangirls.

* * *

When Lucy and Erza left the guild hall, the smaller girl was suckling happily on a lollipop, courtesy of Elfman.

"Hmm...this is quite a delicious lollipop. I will need to remember to ask Elfman later for information on where he had purchased it." Erza remarked. It was flavored like strawberry cake, her absolute favorite.

"You're interested in lollipops now?" Lucy grumbled. She was walking hand in hand with Erza, looking like a mother taking her daughter on a walk.

"What's wrong, Lucy? You've been difficult this entire day, not to mention the days before. What's going on?" Erza was not pulling off the 'concerned significant other' act very well when she barely stood tall enough to reach Lucy's waistline. She still kept slurping on the lollipop, though.

"I'm fine, Erza..."

"No, I can tell that there's something wrong. We've been together for over a year so far, not counting the seven we missed. You can tell me whatever you want, Lucy."

Lucy sighed. She figured she should bring it up after all, at least before this charade went on too long. "Erza...don't you, err...WANT to go back to normal size?"

"Of course I do, Lucy."

"Then why aren't you trying anything? You just sit around acting cute and eating lollipops!" Lucy knew that she was letting her temper get the better of her, and the more she spoke, the angrier and more frustrated she became, but it was too late for her to stop now, and she was so caught up in it all that she didn't realize she would immediately regret it afterward.

"Lucy, there isn't anything I can do at this point. Not even Porlyusica knows how to reverse the magic, and that dark mage we beat refused to show us how to cancel its effects. You, Natsu, Gray and Wendy were all turned into children, but you eventually turned back after a little while. I have no answer as to why I haven't yet. I'm sure it will happen soon in time, but we have to be patient."

"I don't want you to end up being stuck as a kid forever, Erza! How are we supposed to stay together if that happens?" Lucy continued to shout. She was spilling out everything she'd been holding in for the past few days.

"Lucy? You don't really mean that, do you?" Erza's eyes, already large, seemed to grow several times bigger, and her face lost its coloring. She looked like she'd just seen a ghost.

"I want to be with you, Erza. I really do. I love you so much! But...if you can't turn back, then how are we supposed to keep up our relationship? There's almost a decade between us now, and it would be years before you're even considered legal! We can't go on dates, we can't get married, we can't kiss, we can't make love...what CAN we do, Erza? I want to be your lover, not your mother!"

Erza dropped her lollipop. It hit the ground with a sickening crack, shattering into dozen of tiny pieces. She started sniffling. "Wait, no...Lucy...are you...are you going to leave me...?"

"I don't know anymore..." Lucy look away. She couldn't dare stare Erza in the eye anymore.

"No...no...I don't want that, I don't...waah...!"

It was too much for Erza. She started sobbing and wailing at the top of her lungs. She stood there, hands balled into fists and her head tilted back, as she bellowed with agony over the thought of being abandoned. For all of the maturity she'd displayed up until now, she could still throw a tantrum just like the child too. Lucy tried to get her to calm down, but that only seemed to push Erza to cry even louder. Everyone in the immediate area stopped and stared at the bawling young girl. Soon, a whole crowd had gathered. Lucy paled; she needed to get out of here, and fast.

"C'mon, Erza!"

Lucy lifted the girl up into her arms as if she were an exceptionally heavy bag of groceries, and made bee-line straight for Fairy Hills.

* * *

'Geez, Erza...you really are such a handful...'

Lucy cautiously lowered the slumbering Erza onto their bed. She had been crying so much and so hard that she ended up wearing herself to sleep; her cheeks still glistened with fallen tears. Lucy ran her fingers through Erza's hair. The feared Titania could be exceptionally cute, no matter whether she was big or tiny. She could just imagine what sort of filthy jokes Cana would be making about this scene right now, though.

Lucy laid down beside her little lover, and spent nearly three minutes in complete silence, watching Erza sleep sound. Her chest gently rose and fell with each tiny inhale of air. Never before had she seen someone look so innocent, so angelic. Lucy felt absolutely awful; she could almost feel her heart being weighed down with those heavy chains of guilt. She had really upset Erza back there, when she told her they might have to break up. Lucy slipped one arm over Erza's chest and the other beneath her, pulling the girl over to her side, so they could properly embrace. Erza remained asleep throughout this.

'Her size doesn't affect who she is on the inside, right...?' Lucy sadly mused, 'So then...would she really have cried that much if I ever broke up with her, even if she was her real age?'

She kissed Erza's forehead, with all the gentleness of a hovering leaf landing onto a body of water. She almost wanted to start crying too. She regretted ever having any doubts in the first place.

'I'm so sorry, Erza...I love you.'

* * *

When Lucy woke up (she had fallen asleep too), she was rather surprised to see that the young girl in her arms had been replaced with a full-grown woman.

Lucy screamed.

"Wah!" Erza sat up in bed; she was 18 again, and her little dress barely reached over her navel, "L-Lucy! Don't go screaming in my ear like that! Geez, you almost gave me a heart attack! What's wro-"

"Erza! You're back to normal!" Lucy squealed.

Erza looked down. "Oh my God, you're right!"

Lucy jumped Erza right away, smashing her lips over her girlfriend's, showing how relieved and happy she was about this turn of events in the best way she knew how. Erza returned the kiss with the same volume of passion. The two women caressed and squeezed each other's bodies, all over from shoulders to butt-cheeks, as they continued to make out. When they broke apart, Lucy saw Erza's beautiful, mature face, and she wanted to start weeping.

"You're...back to normal...I'm so happy!" Lucy was out of breath.

"See? I told you it would wear off eventually," Erza grinned.

"Yeah...you were right..."

"Ah, yeah that reminds me too," Erza suddenly had a strange expression, one that Lucy couldn't read, but she didn't like it either.

"Er, what?"

"You made me cry yesterday, Lucy. You threatened to break up with me."

"Oh...uh, I..."

"Lucy, you need to be punished."

"W-Wha...?"

"Don't worry, though, I'll forgive you, but still, what you did wasn't very nice." Erza started tying up Lucy's arms and legs with the bed covers.

"E-Erza? Isn't there, like, some other way I could make this up to you? Please?" Lucy was begging. She had seen Erza's 'punishment games' on Natsu and Gray before. It wasn't very pretty.

Erza kissed her, and gave her a most mischievous grin for her trouble. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."


	17. The Lengths She Would Go Pt 1

Erza had barely had time to settle down in her room, having just returned from a very lengthy mission, when Natsu came bursting through her door. Literally, he burned the entire thing to cinders and flew through the ashes in a panic.

"Natsu, what the hell are you doing?" Erza screamed at him. She was already reaching for her blade.

"Erza!" Natsu cried back, even louder. They stared at each other for a moment as Natsu gasped for air, and the redhead was stunned to see tears pouring down his face, and his face was contorted with sheer agony, "It's...it's Lucy...!"

To hear her girlfriend's name spoken by Natsu with such a painful expression and a voice verging on a wail, Erza could already feel like she'd taken a thousand punches to the gut. She dropped her sword.

"She...she's..." Natsu could hardly bring himself to say another word about it. He started running down the hallway again, ushering Erza to come follow him. Erza complied without a moment's hesitation. The two of them ran and ran, all the way out of Fairy Hills apartments, down the hill, and toward the guild hall, which Erza noted was eerily absent of its usual abundance of loiterers.

Erza couldn't wait much longer; she was so afraid, she needed to prepare herself for what might be awaiting her inside.

"Natsu...what's happening? What's going on with Lucy?"

Natsu breathed in, and he summoned what must have been the very last of his strength to reveal the truth. "...She's dying."

Erza immediately pushed Natsu aside and knocked him to the ground. She ran for the doors, faster than she'd ever moved before. Natsu slowly tried to pick himself back onto his feet, sobbing wildly the entire time, as the young man's near-infinite willpower couldn't hold his dam of tears from breaking for any longer if he tried. His legs could barely sustain him as he felt it all come crashing down on top of his pink-haired head. And yet, even someone as terribly self-centered as Natsu was aware that it must have been multiple times harder for Erza, who had been Lucy's girlfriend for over a year.

"Erza..."

Erza opened the doors and stepped into the dining hall, noticing a large crowd was huddled together around one of the bench tables. Erza approached them. Elfman was the first to turn and notice Erza's presence, but he looked away again almost instantly. At least he moved out of the way so she could move in, but he said nothing, not that there was anything he could possibly say to make any of this better. Erza made her way through the tight cluster of people, until finally, she let her eyes be graced by Lucy's beauty. But her beauty had been dreadfully marred. Lying atop a blood-stained cloth, with a massive splotch of red spreading over her abdomen like a virus, the young woman did not move. While her eyes were still open, they did not blink either. She did nothing but stare up straight ahead, right into the lights shining down on her.

Erza, petrified as she was, felt a tiny hand place itself over hers. It was Makarov.

"I'm so sorry...she'd been injured in a fight, and it was much worse than we all thought it was. We tried to help her, but she'd already passed away before Porlyusica could get here."

Erza's bottom lip quivered ever so slightly. She didn't like this, not at all. Lucy, her Lucy, was gone. While she was out fighting monsters in a foreign land, she had left her beloved defenseless, and because of that, she had lost her life in the height of her youth.

It wasn't something she could just nod her head and accept. In fact, Erza absolutely refused to allow things to end this way.

* * *

A few days passed without much trouble. The funeral was held, and Lucy was buried. Everyone in the Fairy Tail guild was still reeling from the loss of their comrade, while streams of condolences, gifts and flowers from allied guilds and friends alike were being poured in at a near-daily basis. Princess Hisui Fiore herself made a speech to the people about Lucy's passing, noting the importance she had played in saving the world from the dragon menace, and how she would be surely missed for all time. There were even rumors that she would have a statue built for her, or be given the honor of knighthood' post-mortem, but so far they remained only rumors and nothing more.

No one was more heavily affected than Erza, though. In fact, since the day of Lucy's passing, she had kept herself locked inside her room, and while it was likely she left it periodically to get food, no one in the guild ever spotted her. Natsu's, Gray's, Mirajane's and anyone else's attempts at talking to her led to failure; she did not seem interested in discussing anything with them. Now, aside from their sorrow from losing Lucy, there were also concerns among the guild that Erza might attempt to take her own life due to her 'depression'. No one knew what she was doing in her room. Mirajane claimed to have heard Erza mumbling and other strange noises coming from inside her room, but that didn't explain a single thing.

"Why don't we just break down her door and find what's up?" Natsu suggested.

"We had just gotten that new door for her room after YOU destroyed the old one!" Gray responded, "And besides, we probably should leave her be, until she finally comes out and talks to us about Lucy's death. We tried to get her to listen, but she refused, so now it's all up to her, while we need to sit by, wait and hope."

"Hey! Are you telling me that we should give up on her?" Natsu snapped back, glaring.

"No, I mean we should give her the space she needs so she can grieve alone! Not everyone is a freakin' open book like you are!"

"What do ya mean by that, jerk?"

Natsu and Gray slammed their foreheads together, snarling like rapid dogs about to fight over a slab of raw meat. Mirajane calmed them down the proper way; by smacking them over their empty little heads with a giant dinner plate. The two men both lost consciousness and collapsed onto the floor. There was a splatter of blood left on the underside of the plate.

"You two need to keep focused on the main issue here: how to help Erza."

"Um..." Levy decided to throw in her two cents, although she was deathly afraid of Mirajane's killer plate all the same, "Maybe we should try talking to her again...who knows how she might change with each day? I mean, maybe I'm being selfish, and trying to take too much into my own hands, but I'd feel like an awful friend if I have to sit on the sidelines while one of our own is suffering, like Erza is."

"You're forgetting who we're talking about here," Evergreen pointed out, "It's Erza! The Titania! The strongest woman in Fairy Tail! I agree with Gray, I think that if anyone will be able to get her over this whole thing, it's going to be Erza herself. There are others of us who still miss her too, you know..."

"You...you were never even friends with Lucy to begin with! I was one of her first friends in this guild! She was my best friend! She trusted me so much; I was the first person she told that she loved Erza! Why do you have any reason to miss her? You turned her into a statue once, in case you forgot!" Levy started shouting back at the other woman, her eyes wide and wild. She plopped back down into her seat between Droy and Gajeel, and she started sobbing into her hands. Gajeel hugged her; Levy was still one of many in the guild who hadn't fully accepted Lucy's death yet. Evergreen, her face brimming red, held herself back from making an inappropriate comment.

"There has to be something we can do!" Cana said.

"What if we used that magical gate, the one that brought out the dragons? We'll go back in time and save Lucy!" Wendy suggested.

"We can't. It was destroyed to prevent further incidents from ever occurring." Mirajane told her; she had never considered using the Eclipse Gate before, though. It might have had a chance, although she doubted it, especially because of the risks that came with manipulating the time stream.

"Oh...no..." Wendy sniffled, about ready to cry too.

Suddenly, Romeo happened to look outside the window overlooking the front entrance of the guild. "Um...I see Erza outside right now."

"What?" The entire guild rushed for the window all at once. It was true, Erza was standing outside, and she was doing something. The redheaded warrior mage was dragging her sword along the dirt, creating a series of patterns in the ground. She was also speaking quite loudly, chanting some kind of hymn in a language none of the mages had ever heard. Her hair was messy and unkempt, and she looked like she'd been hit by an extreme case of insomnia recently. Mirajane, Levy and the others hurried outside to meet her. Elfman woke up Natsu and Gray from their comas with a swift kick to their ribs, so they could come along.

"Erza! What're you doing?" Mirajane shouted, and she ran for Erza, but the other woman suddenly held out her hand, motioning for her to stop. Mirajane did as requested. Erza lowered her hand, and she gave Mirajane the oddest smile. It was like it couldn't make a choice between 'happy' or 'sad', and so it went with the closest thing between them. Erza looked as if she'd had several pints of blood sucked out of her over the few days she'd been in hiding; she looked deathly ill.

"Hello, Mirajane."

"Erza...what are you doing?" Mirajane asked again.

"I'm..."

"What? Erza's finally come out?" Natsu exclaimed. He and Gray had woken up, a little groggy but no harm sustained nonetheless.

"I'm going to bring Lucy back." Erza announced. She drew a quarter-circle in the sand where she stood, and thrust the blade tip into the ground. She

"You're doing...what?"

"Just step back. I've spent the last few days working on this spell. I've done all the research, Also, Natsu, Gray..."

"Y-Yes?" Natsu was also a little loss in translation with his emotions; he didn't know whether to be horrified that Erza wanted to raise Lucy from the dead like a zombie, or excited at how indescribably awesome that sounded.

"Go dig up Lucy's body; I'll need it. Take care of my body too."

Erza turned to face the massive sigil she'd drawn, a complex series of lines, circles and shapes, which was meant to be used as the summoning circle for whatever she intend to bring out. Before anyone could stop her, Erza started to chant. She took a bag off of her belt and began spreading around the ash inside. Lastly, she removed her glove, slid the bottom of her thumb against her sword, and splashed the blood onto the ground. As the red liquid gushed all over her wrist, something else flowed from the cut; a stream of pure, magical energy, straight into the sigil. The magic flowed through the lines of the sigil like water moving through an irrigation system, and soon, the sigil began to shine with an eerie, bluish-green glow.

"Erza...are you...serious?" Mirajane, for all the years she'd known Erza personally, never thought the young woman would go this far. But she was, and it was for Lucy. "Are you going to bring back Lucy from the dead?"

"Sort of. I'm going into heaven, to bring back her soul. That's why I need her body back."

"Umm...what?" Mirajane thought her brain had broke for a second. She couldn't have possibly heard Erza right.

"Isn't it a logical way to go about things? You guys wouldn't really want a zombie wandering around the guild; it would give us bad publicity, plus I don't want to kiss a decomposing girl. That'd be gross."

"BUT YOU'RE BREAKING THE LAWS OF REALITY AS WE KNOW IT!" shouted the crowd back at her.

'Only someone like Erza could possibly get away with something like this...' Mirajane thought, sighing.

Erza performed several more complex maneuvers in her act of summoning the portal to the heavenly realm, including an exceptionally embarrassing dance, which likely explained the reasoning why no one had ever attempted to summon this magical gateway before in history. Because Erza was like a magical tanker, possessing almost limitless power inside her, she was capable of pouring in just enough magic without losing her own life in the process. Most humans would not be able to handle the magic sacrifice, but Erza was practically super-mortal herself. With a final hymn escaping her lips, Erza completed the necessary ritual. The sigil's light grew even brighter, and with another great flash, a pillar of light emerged.

"It worked!" Makarov exclaimed, disbelief clear on his face.

Erza waved to them. "I'll be back!"

"Wait, Erza! You can't really be doing this! I mean...Lucy's dead, Erza! She's gone!"

Erza shook her head. "I'm not going to let her die, not until we've both lived our lives to the fullest together. That's what I promised her on the day we got together. I...I didn't even get to say goodbye to her either."

"Erza..." 'This is still overdoing it, though.' Mirajane thought.

"Once I figure out a way back, I need you guys to get ready to take us back."

"Wait...did you just say...you can't come back out?"

"Oh, no, this is a one-way portal."

"What! Erza! Hold on-"

"Wish me luck!"

Erza grabbed her sword and started running. She jumped straight into the portal. It closed shut behind her, vanishing with another flash.

* * *

Erza stepped out into white light, nothing but white light as far as the eye could see. She rubbed her eyes, but she soon realized that it wasn't her eyes fooling her. She didn't have anything she could possibly do standing where she was, so she started running, straight ahead. As she moved through the empty whiteness, a world itself began to take form around her. Streets of glimmering gold beneath her feet, buildings of pristine white sprouted like flowers, and a sky of the deepest blue popped into existence, all in a matter of seconds. Erza felt some unease; the city was uncannily similar to Magnolia. There also did not seem to be anyone here at all. It was a ghost town.

Erza kept running and running, the golden road leading her up to the top of a hill, just outside the city limits. There, beneath the shade of a tree, sat two women at a table. One of them was Lucy.

"Lucy!"

The blonde turned, and when she saw Erza running toward her, she looked like she was about to collapse. Instead, she got to her feet, and hurried to rush into her lover's arms.

"Erza!"

The two of them embraced, and they kissed just as they had first kissed so long ago, with the same amount of passion and love put behind the press of their lips. Lucy was wearing a simple cloth dress, with a halo hovering three inches over her head, and a pair of angel wings on her back. It was a pretty old-school look, Erza had to admit. They kissed several more times before they held back just long enough to start talking to each other. Granted, they'd much rather make out some more, but priorities had to be made.

"So...this is what angels look like, huh?" Erza smirked.

"Um, actually, you're given the chance to look however you want when you're here. I...I always wanted to have angel wings and a halo like this, after seeing them in a book my mother used to read to me..." Lucy grinned bashfully while blushing.

"Thankfully you didn't change much else about yourself."

"Of course not!"

Erza tried to keep her grin, but she couldn't. Not when she thought about how Lucy had looked the last time she'd seen her; lying in her own blood, a red gap in the middle of her abdomen, her lifeless eyes gazing up to the ceiling. "Lucy...I'm...I'm so sorry...I couldn't protect you, like I promised..."

"It's okay, Erza. There was nothing that could be done, because you were at a completely different country at the time, and I was on an in-town mission. Don't blame yourself."

"Lucy, I..." Erza clutched Lucy against her, the smaller girl's head buried into her neck, and hugged her tight, all the while trying not to start crying, "I won't lose you again like that...I never will." The girls held each other for a minute. Erza's armor prevented her from feeling Lucy's body against her own, but if everything went as planned, they would be able to embrace properly soon enough.

"Erza, why are you here, anyway? Don't tell me..." Lucy was disturbed by the implications of Erza's presence now that she thought more about it, but Erza quickly put her fears to rest with her explanation.

"I spent several days since your death putting together a ritual to get into heaven, so I could bring you back."

"You broke the laws of reality, time and space just to get me back?" Honestly, Lucy was touched.

"Well, there isn't any other way to bring you back except as a zombie, and that wouldn't be very pretty...for either of us."

"Eww, you're right; it'll do horrors for my complexion, and for everything else."

Suddenly, the other woman, the one who had been sitting with Lucy at the time, appeared next to the two girls. She was quite tall, and very beautiful, clearly a woman in her mid-20s to early 30s. She had platinum blonde hair that hung all the way down her back, straight to the floor. She looked very familiar, and it didn't take too long for even someone like Erza to figure out who she was. The little wings in her hair gave it away.

"...The first guildmaster?"

"You may call me 'Mavis' like everyone does, Erza. It's quite nice to be able to see you again. I never got the chance to say this before, but congratulations on kicking that bitch Minerva's ass in the Magic Games! You really helped out the guild there!"

"Oh, uh, thank you, M-Mavis...and you...um, you look different than when we last, err, saw you..."

"Oh, do you like it?" Mavis twirled around, "This isn't exactly how I looked at the time of my death, but I don't always prefer looking like a little child, you know."

"You're very beautiful." Erza nodded. Lucy felt a pang of jealousy, and she hugged her girlfriend's arm tight enough to be considered a vice grip.

"Thank you! But there's something you should know, dear, before you try to leave." Mavis smiled at her.

"What is it?"

"I can't allow you to take Lucy's soul back with you."


	18. The Lengths She Would Go Pt 2

"What did you just say, First Master...uh, I mean, Mavis?"

Mavis continued smiling, but her eyes seemed to be giving the apology now. "You're still alive, Erza. You don't belong here naturally. Lucy does, however. It's sad that it happened while she was so young, but she's passed on, and this is where her soul is meant to stay."

"No..." Erza didn't know why she said that, as if her wishful negation of the truth would somehow change things. She was so close, so close to bringing back the woman she loved. She refused to have to give up after getting this near to accomplishing her goal. Lucy clenched Erza's hand tightly, shielding herself behind the taller woman for protection. Mavis shook her head.

"I could open a pathway back to Fiore for you two, that's the kind of power I have...but I can't."

"Why not? Please, M-Mavis, I need you to do this! Please don't take Lucy away from me! You're the first guildmaster of Fairy Tail, and you were there with us when we fought in the Magic Games. What reason is there that you wouldn't want to help us?"

"It's my duty." Mavis explained.

"What?"

"How do you think I came back to save you all from Acnologia the first time? And how I was able to spend so much time with you all even after that, until the end of the tournament? It's because I made a deal with the big man upstairs. I may be able to help you leave, but that's only because I'm being allowed to. I could never have left heaven as a spirit on my own. In return for him giving me that chance, I have to act as heaven's guardian from people like you, who want to bring back souls into the living world. You're the first one to show up in a long time, and while I sympathize with you...Lucy's told me a lot about your relationship...I am still under orders to send you back while keeping Lucy here in the place she belongs."

"Mavis, there has to be some way! Something we can do to get you to change your mind!" Lucy begged.

Mavis tapped her chin for a few, agonizing seconds of silence. Erza and Lucy glanced at each other through eyes' corners; they really needed to figure out a way to appeal to the guildmaster, since she was likely the only person who could let them leave heaven unscathed. Suddenly, Mavis had an idea, and Erza could have sworn she saw the lightbulb pop up over her head.

"Why don't we settle it like real mages, and we fight each other? If you beat me, I'll let you go!"

Erza's face fell, and most likely her bowels would have emptied too if she hadn't been cautious enough. "You want me...to fight you?"

"Doesn't that sound like fun? Ahh...I haven't fought anyone in the last few hundred years, and I didn't get to wrestle with Zeref when I came back for the Magic Games either...oh, this'll be so much fun!" Mavis let out a melancholic sigh as she mused on the days long past. Erza had almost forgotten just how old the first guildmaster was really supposed to be. She didn't know what she was talking about Zeref for, though. Lucy wished she could convince Mavis to reconsider. They had spent the last few days sitting around, drinking tea and eating cupcakes together. Maybe their new bond of friendship could be used to make a push for common sense and a path to peace.

"Mavis! Surely there's some less violent way we can resolve things like this?"

"Actually, I want to fight Erza. Makarov told me she's Fairy Tail's strongest woman, and after seeing how she handled herself in the Magic Games, I'm excited to test her for myself!"

Erza winced; she liked a good fight too, but violence wasn't always the answer, especially since they were supposed to be on the same side here. And especially because Mavis could probably blow her away with just a flick of her fingers. However, at the same time, Erza was ambivalent; she understood what Mavis was saying, and she couldn't run away. She wasn't going to leave Lucy here alone, that much was certain in her mind. She would sooner join her in heaven forever.

"Okay, Mavis, I'll take you up on your request. I'll fight you, but if I win, I can take Lucy back with me?"

Mavis smiled that genuinely sweet smile of hers. "Of course! Fairy's promise!"

"Lucy, you should probably move out of the way-" Erza started to say, withdrawing her sword. It was as if it set off a signal in Mavis' brain all of the sudden.

"First hit!"

Several things happened one after another, in the brief space of only three seconds. First, Mavis' dress slipped off of her body like it was made of water, leaving her in only her underwear, a white bra and panties. Next, she took one swing with her fist at Erza's sword. Finally, she raised her leg and smashed the heel into Erza's breastplate. Both the blade and the armor cracked, split and shattered from the instant that impact was made. Lucy fell back, her jaw dangling open in silent horror. Erza hardly knew what was happening, and when she realized she was holding nothing but a broken hilt, she was ejected high into the air, like a rocket lifting off into space. There was even a trail of smoke left behind in her wake. Erza hit the ground again a few dozen feet away, and rolled down the hill, scattering chunks of blood-stained armor all over the grass.

"I know that was a little cheap, but I'm no samurai; I don't really need to follow some kind of 'warrior's code'," Mavis told Lucy, who was still white with shock, "Also, I like to fight in my underwear. I look sexy, don't I?"

"Uh…"

"Don't worry about Erza. She's still alive."

"Huh?" Lucy looked to her, but immediately blushed when she realized she was staring at Mavis' bust, which was large enough to rival her own and Erza's.

"Don't you know? People with physical bodies get big power boosts if they come here!" There was a devious twinkle in Mavis' eye; she had something planned, that much was certain, and although it might have meant giving Erza a big aid in this fight, it didn't seem to bother the formerly-living mage in the very slightest of imagination. She was having too much fun.

Erza herself, however, was locked in a struggle of slipping in and out of consciousness, unable to get her mind to stay focused. She hadn't broken anything internally, thank goodness, but she'd been so taken aback, so mentally unprepared for what had happened to her, that it left her a little out of sorts. She needed to regain her bearings, but at the same time, she had had the wind literally kicked out of her lungs. It wasn't the easiest thing to accomplish, pulling herself back together after taking a hit like that. The first guildmaster was just as strong as the legends had said.

'I...I was caught completely off guard...like a newbie. Goddamn that hurt bad.' Erza thought. 'I can't breath, but if I stay lying on my butt like this...then Lucy...!'

Erza grit her teeth. Putting every ounce of strength she could into her aching arm muscles, she started to rise from the dirt, like a phoenix reborn. Mavis beamed, and Lucy murmured a quiet prayer to protect her beloved. Erza's body was briefly encased with blinding light, and when the light faded, she was wearing an entirely new set of armor, along with a new blade in hand. It was blood-red armor, imprinted with flames, and an oversized, jagged machete. Erza was overflowing with magical energy from all over her body.

"How many armor sets do you have, Erza?" Mavis asked.

"…About twenty." Erza replied after a moment's deliberation.

"Alright then! Once I break all twenty of your Requip armors, then that means I win!"

"No, that's wrong…because even if you destroy every one of my weapons and every piece of armor I wear, I'll still keep fighting you with my own bare hands!"

"That would actually be a very bad idea."

Erza lunged for Mavis back at the top of the hill, propelling herself with a pair of propellers on the back of her metal skirt. Mavis raised her fists, and motioned herself into a defensive pose. Lucy hurried behind the nearby tree for safety. The waves of grass rippled and spread like parting waves beneath Erza's feet. She prepared to swing her sword at Mavis' face, and as she did so, a memory popped itself into her mind. It was a memory of her past with Lucy. Erza swung, but Mavis grabbed the blade on its edge, no problem whatsoever. She plucked the machete out of Erza's hands, as if she were snatching away the toy of an unruly child, and punched the young woman in her gut. Erza's new armor started to crumble around her, but instead of a repeat from before, the bold redhead summoned yet another set of magical equipment on the spot. She held her ground despite the fact that her very bones were rattling from that punch. Mavis was still smiling, pride evident in her eyes.

This time, Erza went for the legs. Unfortunately, she had forgotten something else. That Mavis could fly. She took a kick to the face for her mistake.

"Oh, you're so going to hate it when I actually pull out the real magic!" Mavis giggled.

* * *

"Hey, Lucy, how are you doing? Long time no see." Erza grinned, giving the blonde a light wave as she sat down beside her in the guild hall. It was a time before they'd become a couple, even before they'd started dating. At this point in time, the two girls didn't even know of each other's true feelings.

Lucy smiled. "Erza! Hey, good morning! Did you sleep okay? I heard from Natsu that you just got back last night! You were gone for almost two weeks, so you definitely got to tell me all about your adventure in the foreign country!"

Erza tried to fight back her oncoming blush. This was how she felt back during this time. It was that beautiful, bright smile that had become like a beacon in Erza's dreary life; it was one of the few things besides new clothes and strawberry cake that gave her that much needed emotional lift. Of course, right now, Erza had never told the girl in question that she thought those things about her. It was far too embarrassing for the redhead to even consider. She couldn't lie to herself and claim that she didn't find Lucy somewhat, okay, really attractive, but she still had a good assumption that she wasn't even in the other girl's line of sight when it came to potential love.

"It really wasn't all that much…I had to protect a senator, solve a hidden plot to overthrow the government involving ancient automatons, fight an evil chancellor…it was about five times easier than it sounds, believe me." She left out how the senator was actually a young woman, and that said young woman had tried to give her 'gratitude kisses' on the lips more than a few times after the rescue.

"What? Are you serious? Now you have to tell me!" Lucy squealed. Erza learned later on from Lucy herself that she had already been infatuated with her long before, but she had been considering trying to confess her feelings for a while. Lucy's eyes held steady on Erza's face, as if she were watching every subtle change in the tiny muscles, even the droplets of sweat rolling down her cheeks.

"Hey, Mira, can I have a glass of water, please?"

Mirajane placed down two glasses; apparently Lucy had asked for a cup beforehand. The two women reached out, intending to grab their own cups, but they soon found their hands clasping over each other on a single glass. Erza wasn't wearing her armor, so for the first time, she was able to feel the soft, marshmallow-like texture of Lucy's tiny palm. It made Erza blush over how calloused her fingers were in comparison.

Lucy pulled her hand back. "S-Sorry…" her cheeks flared brightly as she looked away.

Erza sighed. She wanted to feel Lucy's hand more. "It's okay…" she quietly replied.

Later that day, Lucy would ask her out on a date.


	19. The Lengths She Would Go Pt 3

"Huh? You want to go on a date…with me?" Erza pointed at Lucy, and then at herself. Her face was turning redder and redder by the second.

"Um, yeah, I thought we could spend some time together…p-personally." Lucy's face was already aflame, but she tried to keep herself steady, because this was important, and she needed to get Erza to understand just how badly she wanted things to go right between them.

"I've never been on a date before…" Erza murmured, quiet enough that the other girl had to lean in just to hear her.

"It's okay; I'm not exactly experienced at this sort of thing either. We can learn together." Lucy reassured the older woman.

"But…but Lucy…are you really sure about this?"

"Why do you ask?"

"We're both girls, in case you haven't noticed! And I'm sure you have! You've seen my tits!"

Lucy couldn't help it; just hearing Erza say 'tits' in such a frantic way made her burst out laughing.

"L-Lucy!" Erza was trying to be serious, because she wanted to make sure everything between them was genuine, and she couldn't dare joke about something as important as this.

"Erza!" Lucy was still giggling, but she tried to calm herself down as she replied, "I…I know we're both girls! I know that...but I don't care. Gender shouldn't get in the way of something like this. I like you a lot, Erza. Do you like me too?"

"I do like you, Lucy." 'I love you.'

"Then let's go out on a date!" Lucy grinned.

"O-Okay..."

Erza wanted Lucy. She had wanted her almost since the moment they first met. However, even with what Lucy claimed about gender not being an issue, Erza wasn't entirely convinced. They were both women, and she was afraid of what might befall Lucy because of that. She figured Lucy might just be happier if she was with a man instead. Who knew how long a relationship like theirs could last, considering the many different conflicts they faced in their lives?

However, Erza was so happy right now that she didn't care about any of that. She took Lucy's hand into her own, and walked off into town with her.

* * *

Erza swung and swung, but each time, her attacks were either blocked or dodged completely. She was starting to lose focus, getting agitated, upset, confused. She couldn't hurt Mavis at all, and yet she'd already been whittled down to her last handful of armors. Every inch of her body was aching and throbbing. She could only think about Lucy, and the times they'd spent together. She couldn't let her stay here. They had to leave together. She told herself that over and over and over.

Mavis' fist collided with Erza's face, and a resounding crack signified that the Titania's nose had been shattered. Erza fell, the back of her head colliding into a pile of rocks. She cried out in pain, and she felt something wet and cold run down the back of her neck, and she knew it was blood. Mavis took another swing at her without waiting a second. Erza quickly rolled to the right, still feeling the wind of the punch on her face, and she scrambled to get onto her feet again.

"You can't escape me!" Mavis held out her arm. The flesh on the limb started to sag, as if it'd suddenly transformed into silly putty. It was shaking and wobbling, like the arm on a rubber toy. Mavis whipped her arm back, and in vein of a lasso, she threw it, and her arm stretched far, far, far until it could grab the retreating warrior mage by her ankle. Erza swore. She hadn't been trying to run, just to put some distance between them to plan her next move. It seemed accomplishing even that was wishful thinking on her part.

"I call it Gum-Gum magic, do you like it?"

Mavis lifted Erza several feet into the air before slamming her back down to Earth. She flipped Erza over onto her back and left her there. Mavis' other arm, at the same time, was starting to swell, bulging with an outbreak of tumor-like muscles all over. The arm grew larger and larger, until it was comically over-sized compared to the rest of her body, not even something that years of steroids could hope to achieve. It was so gigantic that an entire person, in fetal position, could probably fit inside. Erza glanced over her shoulder to witness this terrifying metamorphosis; her blood-stained teeth started to chatter. The first guildmaster was definitely no 'fairy'...she was a monster.

"You should know, along with my regular High-Level Fairy Magic and being able to predict the future, I'm also capable of using over ten different minor magics whenever I please!" Mavis remarked. "These are just two of them!"

Mavis brought down her enlarged, muscular fist onto Erza's stomach, destroying yet another requip armor.

Erza screamed. Lucy, watching from afar, screamed with her. It hurt so much, and a few metal shards had been caught in her stomach as well.

"I can also grow into a giant, become a wolf, spit icy flames and fire laser beams from my eyes among other things, or all at once...what should I do to you next, Erza?"

No, she wasn't only a monster, but a sadist as well. How could someone like this have ever been the founder of Fairy Tail?

* * *

"Erza..."

Lucy leaned in, her lips puckered for a kiss. Erza closed her eyes, but she still tensed up, as if she were expecting a shot instead of a kiss. Lucy, noticing this reaction, pulled back and frowned. They had been on several dates now, and Erza still hadn't kissed her yet. It was strange, she would have expected Erza to be all over her, yet she was always being reluctant.

"Erza, what's wrong?"

"Lucy..." Erza sighed, "I...you...ugh, are you really sure about us? Do you think you want to be with me for real?"

"Erza, not this again," Lucy groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Lucy, I don't understand, why won't you even consider what I'm saying?"

"Because you're acting way too paranoid!"

"I don't want either of us to end up in something that we could regret later on!"

"Oh..." Lucy lowered her head, so Erza could no longer see her face, "So does that mean...you think that you'll end up regretting being with me, Erza? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

"No! Not at all! Of course not!"

"Then what is it?" When she got angry, Lucy became an impenetrable, unbreakable force that not even Erza could hope to conquer. It was hard to change her mind once she got started like this. The Lucy of old had never been this way, but after years of being apart of Fairy Tail, she'd adapted to handling its craziness, and becoming a stronger person because of it. However, now she was sharper, in mind and tongue, than any of Erza's swords, and the redhead really didn't want to make her angry.

"What I'm worried about...is that our relationship isn't going to work out like we want it to...especially considering we're both girls, the constant danger we're put in with our missions, having to be apart for long amounts of time because of those missions...I don't want to end up disappointing you." Erza had had enough of disappointing people in her life, even though she was the one who usually suffered the most.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "If anyone else was saying that to me right now, I probably would end the relationship."

"Ah..."

"Erza, I'm not going to ever feel like I made a mistake choosing you over Natsu or Cana or Sting or whoever else. You can hold me to my word on that." Lucy gave her that cheeky, cute little grin that only Lucy could give. Erza felt her heart pound, and without warning, a smile of her own started to spread.

"Lucy..."

"Heh, I never thought I'd be the one having to give you a pep-talk," Lucy chuckled, and then she leaned in, "Oh, and by the way..." she kissed Erza on the lips, "You really let your guard down around me too, don't you?"

Erza laughed, but she didn't realize she'd started crying out of relief too, the tears taking away all of her worries and fears with them. She embraced Lucy and kissed her with as much passion as she could muster.

* * *

"Erza...are you ready to give up now? If it's hurting too much, I can send you back home. It'll be easy." Mavis remarked, her face gradually morphing back to its original, human form. A bruised, bloody Erza was lying in front of her. The former guildmaster had spent the last few minutes basically mauling the poor girl.

Erza could only see out of one of her eyes, the fake one, as badly battered as she was. Her final armor had been destroyed, and she was left wearing nothing but her casual clothes, which were violently torn and stained in dirt and blood. Erza couldn't hope to do as much as stand up. Her legs were wrecked, the bones and muscles decomposed into jelly. Her left arm was limp and useless. Erza still had her hand grasping onto the handle of her broken sword, the hilt slick and wet, but it wouldn't do her much good trying to swing it in a fight. She'd never been in worse condition near the end of a battle than she was right now. The fights against Kagura and Minerva had nothing on this.

Mavis, meanwhile, was still perfectly unharmed. There wasn't a drop of blood on her, not her own or even Erza's. It was like everything immediately slipped off of her, as if her skin was coated in a thick, slippery sheet of oil. She approached the damaged young woman with a leering, unforgiving gaze. Lucy was weeping from far away; she wanted to help Erza so badly, but she couldn't do anything.

Mavis knelt down beside Erza. "Come on, Erza. You're torturing yourself at this point. I didn't want to have to hurt you this badly," Mavis touched the immobilized girl on her shoulder, "But I had to make a point...and to test you."

"Ah..." Erza was in such bad shape, she had to choose between talking or breathing, but somehow she was able to muster out a strained gasp that was a mixture of the two.

"I want to tell you something. I've never told anyone. Nobody in the guild, not even Makarov should know about this. It's the truth behind the guild and myself. You see...there hadn't been a specific name for it back in the day, but when I first founded Fairy Tail, it would have been considered a 'dark guild'."

Erza's eyes widened. She gripped her sword a little tighter, and she waited.

"I was a girl with too much power; I let it all go to my head, and I planned to use those powers to take whatever I wanted, no matter who or what stood in my way. But then Zeref showed up. I'm sure you know about him. He became my friend, and he reformed me. He helped recreate the guild into what it is now, a home for mages that value friendship and family over power. He saved me, but eventually he was overcome with darkness, like how darkness once poisoned me. I tried to save him from those inner demons, but I couldn't...and I died because of a mistake." Mavis explained. Erza watched her. She could tell, from the way her voice quaked in those last words, that the First Master wasn't as infallible as she had seemed in their initial meeting. She was still hurting bad from all those years ago, that was clear.

"Now he's someone you and the others are going to have to eventually face, and I'm so sorry that I was unable to stop him to spare you from that battle in the near future. But, Erza, what I'm trying to tell you right now is that you need to do more than what I did to protect the one you care about. You have to do everything you can to ensure you never lose the precious things in your life, especially a love like Lucy's. This situation may seem different; Zeref was not someone I could save, but Lucy is someone you could surely save, and she needs you. You have to survive the ultimate pain, the ultimate suffering, for the sake of this woman. If you truly want to bring her back to life, then that means defeating me, and proving you will protect her no matter what happens-"

Erza saw her chance. With the final recesses of strength she possessed inside of her, she swung her right arm up, thrusting the jagged tip of her broken sword into Mavis' stomach. Mavis herself hadn't seen it coming, even with all of her precognitive abilities.

Mavis's pale lips stretched into a smile that could only be interpreted as 'placid satisfaction'. She reached out again, and her hand touched Erza's face. In an instant, the woman's many, many wounds had been healed, and her stamina revitalized. Even her armor had been repaired. It had felt so good, like being doused in cold, refreshing water after a long day's work-out. Erza sat up just in time to catch the falling body of Mavis in her arms.

"You did well. I'm sorry for having hurt you so much; I should have held back, but sometimes, that old dark side of mine comes out when I fight. I'll let you take it from here, Erza. I'm sure you and the rest of those kids back home will take care of the guild well."

Mavis vanished in the blink of an eye. She had taken the sword along with her. Erza looked off into the distance, and she saw Lucy running straight for her. Erza wondered if this was going to be the end of some kind of eccentric dream. Those last few moments spent with the First Master were so surreal. Lucy crashed into Erza, wailing with happiness, and they exchanged a series of kisses fueled by adrenaline and relief. After everything they'd been through today, they could not have felt any more relaxed in each other's arms.

* * *

"I love you, Erza."

"...I love you too, Lucy...more than you probably realize right now."

Lucy took Erza's hand, and with one final flash of a grin to the redhead, she lead her forward, into the column of light.

"I can't wait to go back home."

"We go back home."

"Heh heh...yes, that's right! Together."

"Yep..."

"Erza..."

"What is it, Lucy?"

"T-Thank you...thank you so much...thank you..."

"Lucy, you don't have to start crying. It's okay...Lucy, really...I'm not hurt anymore! It's okay! Lucy!"

* * *

Mavis ripped the sword out of her gut, and the steel weapon disintegrated in her hand. There was no hole in her chest, nor was there any blood. Her eyes kept sharp watch on the couple as they entered the doorway leading them back to the world of the living. Mavis hoped she would not see either girl here again until they were old and sagging with bags of wrinkles. That would be the best-case scenario. She wanted them to live long and prosper, as she did for every one of her little 'fairies'.

Mavis had to admit, Erza was a piece of work. Attacking her in the middle of a speech about why they were fighting in the first place. It was sneaky, almost diabolically so, but it was clever, and it had won her the fight in the end. Erza had nearly died for the sake of taking Lucy back with her. Erza had no idea that, because Mavis was a spirit, her magic reserves were limitless, and she could not be worn down. She was invincible and immortal. Despite those incredible disadvantages against her, Erza took on Mavis' challenge and ultimately persevered. In fact, considering her battle intelligence, she was probably aware the whole time.

'I don't know whether to admire her or call her crazy...but she fulfilled my expectations, so I'm happy.'

Mavis' gown reformed over her body, and she floated back down. She decided to pay a visit to the realm below. She wanted to speak to Purehito again. He may be forbidden from entering heaven, but he was the only person in this realm who really understood her well enough. They could share some stiff drinks together.

She wondered which realm Zeref would ultimately be sent to, if he'd even be allowed the luxury of entering the below at all.

* * *

Erza approached Makarov a short time after her return to the guild with Lucy's soul in tow. The blonde Celestial mage had been fully revived, although she was still spitting up maggots now and then. Everyone was surely glad that their beloved friend was back with them. Natsu could barely give Lucy time to breath, he was always hugging her. Of course, Erza was spending more time than ever with her girlfriend too. Right now, though, was one of the rare times where they weren't in the same occupying space.

"Master? Can I ask you something?" Erza said.

Makarov puffed on his smoking pipe. "Yes? What is it, Erza?"

"It's about...the First Master, Mavis Vermillion."

"Oh? What do you want to know about her?"

"Did she, uh..." Erza wasn't sure how to word this without it sounding incriminating or terribly insulting toward Mavis' reputation, "Was she ever known for a bad attitude in her past? Did she act like a troublemaker? Did she form this guild for criminal activity?"

"What? What sort of things are you saying here? Of course she never did! I hadn't joined Fairy Tail myself until around the time that Purehito was becoming the new guildmaster, but I never heard him speak one word of ill toward Mavis or anything about the guild's entire history! None of our logbooks say anything of that sort either! What would make you ask such a question? Pretty odd for you to say something like that, Erza, especially considering you met her in person not a while ago!"

"Oh...sorry, Master." Erza bowed her head.

"Just think about it, how could someone that cute ever be a criminal?"

Erza sighed, and excused herself immediately after. She couldn't help but wonder. Maybe a few kisses from Lucy could help her think clearer, or maybe it would just pull her mind further away. Only one way to find out.


	20. Erza And Lucy Act Weird 2

A/N: Maybe I lied a little in the summary before about it being back to the romance just yet.

* * *

"Hey, Erza, we're a real couple right?" Lucy asked one day.

"What? Of course we are, Lucy." Erza responded back.

"Are you sure?"

"Huh?"

"Do we kiss, hold hands and snuggle?"

"Yeah?"

"Do we like to spend time together and go on dates and stuff?"

"Yeah!"

"At night, do we crawl into bed, spank each other's butts, and call it business?"

"If...if you're talking about sex, then yeah, w-we do that sometimes..."

"Then why don't you ever give me a pet name?" Lucy pouted, shoving out her bottom lip. Erza blinked. She let a meatball slip out of her hanging mouth; she had been in the middle of eating dinner in the bedroom.

"You want...a pet name?" Erza crocked an eyebrow. She wiped some stray sauce off of her cheeks, and Lucy sat down beside her. She had already eaten, and she was in the middle of preparing for bed. The disgruntled blonde was draped in a pair of ill-fitting blue pajamas with ribbon-like emblems, clearly two sizes too large, so it slipped off her shoulders more often than not, revealing a handful of pale, bare skin.

"Yeah, like how Flare always calls me 'Blondie'! You should do something like that! It shows we're a cutesy, lovey-dovey kind of couple!"

"Umm...okay..."

"So what would you call me?" Lucy asked, grinning, her eyes sparkling with unrealistic expectations.

"...What should I call you?" Erza just wanted to eat her dinner.

"Hmph, fine, I'll try to come up with something! How about 'Sunshine', because of my gold hair, and my sunny personality?"

"But isn't that sorta similar to 'Blondie'? We should share something special between us! I'd rather not have to think about your little stalker!"

"Then that's why I asked YOU to come up with a nickname, Erza!"

Erza thought about it for a moment, but her eyes were drawn to one thing, and one thing only on Lucy's body. They were big, round and riddled with love bites, courtesy of Erza herself. "How about...'Bubbles'?"

"Bubbles?"

"Because you have big boobies and a big butt."

"E-Erza...!"

"What? I like them!"

Lucy blushed; it was true, the redhead couldn't keep herself off of the T&A when they were rolling around in the sheets. That was a part of their private lives meant to stay private, though. She didn't mind the nickname 'Bubbles' per say, but considering how often she'd been seen nude by her guildmates, they would surely understand what Erza meant if she was called that pet name out loud. However...

"Umm...it's really nice, Erza. I-I love it!" Lucy forced out a grin; she couldn't disappoint her lover.

The next day...

Lucy and Cana were chatting when Erza came running up to them. She was coated in dirt and blood; she must have just come out of a mission, and a brutal one at that. Likely more than one life had been lost as a result of Erza's actions. Nonetheless, she embraced her smaller lover and snuggled her.

"Hey there, Bubbles!" She pinched one of Lucy's nipples.

Cana smirked. "...Bubbles, eh?"

Lucy elbowed Erza in the gut, and the injured redhead fell to the ground like a stone.

* * *

Erza entered her bedroom one late afternoon, only to barely avoid being struck in the head by Lucy's incredible flying shoe.

"Whoa!"

"Erza! I'm...I'm so disappointed in you! I'm disgusted! How can you expect to be a role model for young girls like Wendy and Asuka when you would do things like this? I thought I could trust you!"

"Lucy...?" Erza dashed into the room. Lucy was sobbing, wailing, in her shoeless socks. There was an open shoebox sitting on the bed, and in her hands, a smaller box that came out of it. Erza's face paled. Lucy's nostrils flared when she spotted the culprit; her eyes and throat seemed to be spitting out flames. She had turned into a dragon, and Erza could really use Natsu right now.

"Erza!"

"Oh...uh..." Erza, for all her strength and limitless magic, couldn't hope to ever raise a finger against an angry Lucy.

"How long have you been doing drugs?"

Lucy tore off the cover of the tiny box, revealing a block of packed cannabis leaves. There was even a slip of paper detailing how to effectively use the leaves. Erza cringed, and she knew that no excuse would get her out of this, so she had to be honest.

"Lucy, that's marijuana, it's true...but those are for medicinal purposes only!"

"Medicinal purposes?"

"Yes! I usually get hurt a lot in the missions I take, but aside from that, Porlyusica was getting tired of seeing me all the time for minor injuries, so she gave me a few take-home ingredients to use for myself. The cannabis is for me, and it really does help, because my human body can only handle so much. You can ask Porlyusica yourself if you really need confirmation! Trust me, though, Lucy!"

"What else do you have with you?" Lucy threw the marijuana onto the floor, and started digging into the shoebox, "Meth? Cocaine? Opium?"

"I...I have morphine..."

"Morphine!" Lucy shrieked, "Oh my god! My Erza's a druggie!"

"I'm not a druggie at all! It's just necessary, Lucy! I need it to help the pain sometimes!"

"I can't...I can't..."

"Lucy!"

Crying harder than ever, Lucy went charging out of the room, leaving all of the drugs behind her. Erza sighed. Lucy would be back eventually, and once she'd calmed down, she would be more willing to listen, and Erza would be able to dash away all of her fears that she was in love with a drug addict. Erza picked up the medicinal marijuana and placed it back into the shoebox. Putting the entire thing back underneath the mattress, Erza wandered toward the closet. She pushed away the piles of outfits and dresses, removing a black box from the deepest depths. She placed her hand on the label; it was a box with no lock, because it could only be opened from a response by Erza's personal magical aura. Inside was a much larger case of marijuana, most of it already rolled up and ready for smoking.

'At least she didn't find out about my recreational marijuana yet...Cana and Mirajane wouldn't forgive me if I lost it...'

* * *

"C'mon, Lucy, give me a kiss!"

Erza and Lucy were sitting on the bed together, the former with her arms and legs ensnaring the girl in an unbreakable lock, her lips puckered for a moment of intimate connection, but the other girl was refusing to let herself fall for this cute act. She kept her back turned to Erza.

"Just one kiss at least? I've been working a long time today, Lucy, I could really use it."

"I'm angry at you." Lucy mumbled.

"What? Why?"

"First you called me 'Bubbles' in front of Cana, which she's never going to let me live down, and then that whole trouble with the drugs...I have a headache so big right now you wouldn't believe, Erza!"

"I said I was sorry about all of those, Lucy. You know I didn't mean it. And about the drugs, you went through my stuff first..."

"I don't care! No kisses for you! Hrumph!"

Erza was shocked; a 'hrumph' was never a good sign. "Please...just a little one? I won't even try to grope you tonight! I promise!"

"No! You still can't grope me either!"

"How about a nipple twist?" Erza's fingers snaked toward Lucy's prominent breasts, "You always liked those..."

"Th-that's just because you know I'm a bit of a masochist! But that won't change anything here either!"

"How about I rub your tummy?"

"I'm not a cat!"

"Oh, you're getting a little soft around the gut, aren't you?" Erza chuckled, having moved one hand down to give Lucy's tummy a little squeeze.

"Gah!"

Lucy spun herself around, tackled Erza onto the sheets, and brought her face in as uncomfortably close as possible. Lucy's body wasn't exceptionally heavy, but Erza could feel Lucy's breasts weighing down on her, and it was like she was sinking into the mattress. Lucy was gripping Erza's lean arms tight enough to leave marks, but she didn't care about that either. She looked like she was about to just as much eat Erza as she would make out with her.

"...Will you stop talking so much if I kiss you right now?"

"Err, yes?" Erza sheepishly grinned.

Lucy started to blush. "Alright." She leaned in just an inch more, and their lips connected. Erza had expected a quick and chaste kiss, but Lucy held it for a good ten seconds, running her tongue along the rim of Erza's lower teeth. When they separated, which was the unfortunate end of something as good as this, Erza found herself unable to keep a smile from creeping onto her face.

"So I can't tell; did you actually want to kiss me all along? Because I mean, you sure put a lot of effort into it-"

Lucy bit Erza on the nose to get her to stop talking.


	21. Lucy and Erza's Daughter

Lucy heard the front door slam shut before she heard the piercing shriek of a young girl in love calling her name. The blonde woman groaned, pulling an open book off of her face. She was lying in a makeshift bed of novels. She had spent all night and most of the morning doing nothing but reading, hoping, praying to the Gods of literary design, that she would find a new inspiration for her next novel. She had barely gotten up when her office door opened, allowing passage to a girl, about 14 years old, with hair a mixture of crimson and cerulean. Her beautiful brown eyes were practically sparkling with stars.

"I'm back from school, Lucy!" she announced.

"I can see that," Lucy yawned again.

"I got you the mail too!" The girl showed off a handful of letters clenched in her fist, and she literally threw herself at the older woman. She tried to bury her head into Lucy's bosom, but Lucy happened to shift her body just in time, forcing the child to rub her face on her guardian's bare arm instead. However, it didn't seem to disappoint her.

"I love you!"

"You're always telling me that," Lucy chuckled, scratching the girl's hair.

"I mean it! I'm only two years away from being 16! I'll be legal, and then you can take me to bed whenever you want!"

"You always say that too!"

"No, last year I said I was three years away!"

"Okay, okay, I got it. Just hand over the mail and I'll start on dinner while you wash up."

The girl puffed out her cheeks, but she did as she was told, slapping the letters into Lucy's open palm. "Fine! There's no way I can disobey a pretty face like yours anyway...!"

"You really love repeating yourself, don't you?"

Lucy watched the girl leave, and when the teen was finally out of sight, she turned her attention to the letters. The first few were nothing but bills and a few paychecks. It seemed her first and only book yet, an autobiography of her early years as a member in Fairy Tail, was still well-received enough to sell copies, even though its peak popularity in mainstream culture had long since passed. Lucy was thankful for that much. There was also a wedding invitation for Wendy and Laxus' wedding; a couple that controversial, even if Wendy had long since been of consent, would likely bring more than a few drunk party-crashers along with it.

Placing those letters aside, she finally came upon the one she had been hoping for. It was from Erza Scarlet-Fernandes, and her husband Jellal.

Lucy tore the letter open, letting the note tumble out onto her lap, along with a wad of money Erza always sent as compensation. She stared at it for a few seconds. She wasn't sure if she should read it, even though a big part of her desperately wanted to. Although she kept in close contact with Erza for all this time, it had been so long, longer than it should have been, since the redhead last visited in person. Especially considering her daughter had been staying under Lucy's care for nearly six years, with only a few visits every other year. Their daughter, Roberta, had been effectively abandoned by her own parents.

Erza and Jellal were constantly away on trips, whether it was on missions to resolve diplomatic disputes in foreign countries, or just personal romantic get-aways between them. Lucy couldn't deny that they were terrible parents. However, she also could come up with an excuse for their behavior. They had both lost their parents in childhood, and forced to grow up emotionally and mentally very quickly in order to survive. They didn't know how to raise kids, but the fact that they were too afraid to really try was what bothered Lucy. Maybe what they thought they were doing was best, by securing a financially secure future for their child, at the expense of emotional support and responsible raising.

It also bothered Lucy that her true feelings for Erza, as taboo as they were, hadn't died out yet, not even after Erza had already married and had a child with the man of her dreams. It was like an emotional stake through the heart.

Lucy picked up the note despite any more reservations. She started reading it, and the first thing she caught notice of was that Jellal had signed the note too. He really was trying hard to be on her good graces. Lucy honestly couldn't bring herself to hate him as much as she felt she should have, considering the situation. She kept reading, and she started to imagine what they were doing right now; Erza's descriptions of their voyage across the sea, participating in a foreign war involving a power dark guild, were quite vivid, and the scenes formed like paintings in Lucy's mind. She jokingly wondered if Erza was the true writer here after all.

The last few sentences were the usual fare: hoping that Lucy was well too, asking her to send a response soon, and to tell Roberta that she and Jellal love her very much. Lucy sighed, and she folded the note, placing it onto her desk. She needed to hurry and get dinner ready, or else Roberta would get cranky.

* * *

"How'd you like dinner?"

"Delicious as always, my dear!" Roberta flashed a wink at the older woman, taking her plate back into the kitchen, "You might have burnt the rice a little, but I didn't mind it one bit! I actually thought it was tastier that way!"

"Err, okay..."

Lucy finished off the last spoonful of her meal, and forced herself to swallow; she didn't think the burnt rice tasted any good at all. Roberta was probably just trying to flatter her, as usual. When the young girl returned into the dining room, Lucy decided to switch the subject to another question just as commonly asked.

"Did school go alright for you today?"

"It was fantastic! I came in first place in all the athletic practices today!" Roberta boasted.

"That's impressive!" 'But not surprising,' Lucy thought, 'She definitely has her mother's genes.'

"I'm still not as good at actually using magic as I'd like to be, though..." Roberta sighed, rubbing the back of her neck.

'I guess she didn't inherit Jellal's skills, though.'

Lucy smiled, and she had to say it. "Your parents sent a new letter today. They're doing fine, but they've been busy. They told me to tell you that they love you very much."

Roberta's smile faltered, just a little, as it usually did whenever the mention of her parents came up, but she quickly threw back up her defenses, and put on that same happy grin Lucy had seen so many times. "Oh really? I'm glad they're doing alright!"

Lucy sighed. If there was anyone being hurt by this arrangement most of all, it was Roberta.

"By the way, Lucy..."

"Hmm?"

"Can I sleep with you in your bed tonight? I feel a bit...lonely..."

"Sorry, I'll be up working all night."

"Gah! How mean!"

* * *

"Good night, Lucy!"

"Good night!"

"Love you!"

"Mmhmm..."

"Just say it once, please!"

Once Roberta had finally fallen asleep, curled up in the platinum-colored covers of her bed, Lucy left her and returned to her office to start writing. Or at least, that was what Lucy wanted to do, but as soon as she opened up her notebook, her mind instantly went blank. She couldn't stop thinking about Roberta, and Erza, and Jellal. It had been many years, but her mind seemed to be caught in a loop, and she still thought about that lovely redheaded warrior as often as a schoolgirl with a crush.

'Erza...why are you such an idiot?'

Lucy thought it was the cruelest irony that she was in love with the mother, and yet the child was the one who constantly proclaimed words of affection for her. Why and when Roberta had fallen in love with Lucy was unknown, but she was surprisingly determined to win her caretaker's hand one day. Lucy understood how she felt.

She still sometimes dreamed of being able to hold Erza, to touch her and to kiss her, and to be touched by her in return. However, the chance of that ever happening had long since passed, and Lucy needed to get over it. However, as long as Roberta was in her presence, she never could. She didn't have Erza's eyes, but she definitely had her face.

Lucy flicked her desk lamp on and off a few times, trying to distract herself from her work, just because it helped ease her mind a little. She wondered about everything that's happened, and everything that will happen, and she wasn't pleased by the results.

She clenched her teeth tight, and an anger she'd felt again and again started to bubble up inside of her, like an overflowing cauldron. It wasn't an anger toward Erza for dumping her daughter on her, nor was it an anger toward Jellal for stealing away the woman Lucy had loved. It was an anger with herself. This wasn't the first time this had happened.

'No...no! I need to try and stay happy, for both of us...! Stay positive, Lucy Heartfilia!'

Lucy started scribbling down word after word, barely without any direction intended. She was going to force a new idea out of her Erza-addled brain even if it killed her. Maybe she could use her own personal experiences as an influence, just as she'd done for her autobiography. She could only hope that, this time, her thoughts stayed on the page, and didn't go drifting off into the oblivion when her imagination eventually failed her.


	22. Bomber Grape

Lucy Heartfilia was having a stressful week lately. A lack of jobs, no money for the rent, Natsu being a jackass, cramps, a lengthy writer's block...it was all starting to pile up, and as a result, it weighed down heavily on her mind.

"Here you go, Lucy!"

Mirajane flashed the blonde one of her uplifting smiles as she placed the drink down for the girl. It was a root-beer float, just the kind Lucy liked. The young woman, however, did not return Mirajane's smile. In fact, she was quite distressed at the moment, and that was because she had suddenly been stricken with a case of major paranoia. Lucy's eyes closely tracked the older woman as she walked away to address the other customers.

'Mirajane...she's always had a thing for me, I could just tell.' Lucy thought, folding her fingers around her cup's handle in a tight vice grip, 'The way she looks down as she hands me my drinks, she's clearly peering into my cleavage. I can help wearing revealing outfits, I really can, but I just like wearing the style. That doesn't mean I'm looking to give anyone a personal peep show. Mirajane should know that, but oh, it doesn't stop her from ever stealing looks at me! I catch them all! How perverted...how lustful! She's even started wearing her shirts with a lower neckline, at least three centimeters since yesterday's! Oh, I bet she takes my utensils after I finish eating and starts licking them all over! What a filthy mind for a barmaid!'

Lucy took a drink. 'Maybe it's the demon inside her. Tight now she's envisioning throwing me onto her bed and ravishing my body until it snaps apart, but she holds herself back every time for my sake? Has she been driven insane from fighting back her natural urges so long? What if one day she snaps and jumps me? I need to keep my guard up!'

Suddenly, Levy, who had been sitting beside Lucy up until this point, coughed before saying, "Um, Mirajane, I didn't get to order anything yet,"

'Gah!' Lucy thought, her face turning pale as snow, 'Levy must be pissed right now! Her words may be about the drink, but her thoughts tell a whole different story, I'm convinced! She's enraged at how much attention Mirajane has given me lately! Levy wants me all for herself! She's the kind of girl who acts sweet and innocent, sucking up to people to get what she wants! Just look at that expression in her eyes! Wild and untamed, brimming with insatiable hatred and horniess! She actually must be the same as Mirajane, just teetering on the edge of sexual madness!'Lucy trembled, clutching her head right, as if afraid it would suddenly roll off her shoulders.

'Levy would go straight for my breasts if she ever attempted to deflower me against my will! She always makes note of my breast size when we go to the hot springs! I used to think she was simply jealous of my superior figure, but it all makes sense now! Her flat chest would lure me into a false sense of security, and then she'd strike with lightning-fast reflexes, raping me before I could even save myself! How ingenious; to be expected from someone who's read so many sex novels! Terrifying!'

Lucy started fidgeting nervously in her seat; she wanted to run away. Levy and Mirajane stared at Lucy, blinking, unsure of what to say about their friend's odd spasms.

"Hello, everyone. It seems like a pretty big gathering today, doesn't it?" Erza Scarlet remarked, entering the scene.

'Oh Zeref, no!' Lucy slammed her hands onto the counter, digging her fingernails through the wood, 'It's the Big Rug-Nibbler, the Vag-pire, the Sappho-Holic, the raging lesbian herself! She's come for me! She's going to snatch me away and drag me back to her elaborate sex dungeon, where she intends to keep me as her personal 'toy' for the rest of my mortal life! She'll pinch my nipples, bite my soft skin, and shove her fingers in too deep! She'll completely devour me! That's what she wants to do! Oh, she's made attempts in pursuing me in the past, I know this, but Erza is tenacious; I can't try to run because she won't stop until I'm hers and only hers! What should I do? What should I do?'

Lucy sniffed the air.

'Gah! I can practically smell the pheromones wafting from her pores! She's one horny bitch!'

"Hey, uh, what's everybody doing, err, hangin' around, ha ha ha...!" A decidedly drunk Cana wandered onto the scene. She could barely keep herself walking steady. Her large, fat breasts were bouncing like she was riding a bike over a bumpy road, and her thin bikini top could barely hold onto them any longer. Her hips swung back and forth, rocking like a gentle ocean wave. Her jeans were pulled down just enough to reveal the strings of her thong. With a drunken giggle and her legs going numb from the alcohol, Cana finally collapsed against Lucy's back. Her breasts smacked into the blonde girl's head. Cana's nipples were hard. With that, Lucy had finally had enough.

She wasn't going to sit here and let herself be gang-raped by these carpet-hungry lesbians. Not without a fight.

"Come on!" Lucy got to her feet and turned to face the group of would-be molesters. She tore all of her clothes off right then and there. Even her underwear was shredded to pieces. She may have been a Celestial Mage, someone who specialized in letting others fight for them, but she knew a little something about handling her own battles too. She'd been beaten up too many times already to let it happen again. With a crazed look in her eyes, Lucy put up her dukes, screaming at them.

"You think you can fool me? You raging lesbians want me so badly? Do I really seem like someone so passive?"

Lucy spun around, showing off her rear, and giving it a slap. "You want this, don't you? You're gonna have to kill me first before I let you take a piece of it! I'm not an easy target!"

Mirajane, Levy, Erza, Cana and Flare (who had popped out from behind the bar table a few seconds ago) could only stare, their jaws slack.

* * *

Ending 1:

"Waaaaah! Lucy's a pervert!" Levy shrieked. Covering her beet-red face in her hands, the young woman went charging off.

"Lucy, put some clothes on!" Erza shouted at her friend, "What in the world is wrong with you? There are children here, you know!"

"Geez, Lucy..." Mirajane shook her head and sighed.

"Damn, girl, I'm drunk as shit right now, and I think you're the one who's had too many drinks!" Cana remarked as she reached for another bottle.

"Blondie has lost all of my respect...!" Flare blew out her tongue.

Lucy blinked. "Huh?"

A pair of strong hands fell upon her shoulders. They were some very hairy knuckles. "I'm sorry, miss, but even in our kingdom, there are still laws against public stripping. You're going to have to come down to the station with us."

As was already said, Lucy was having a stressful week.

* * *

Ending 2:

"Waaaaah! Lucy's a pervert!" Levy shrieked. Covering her beet-red face in her hands, the young woman went charging off.

"Geez, Lucy..." Mirajane shook her head and sighed.

"Damn, girl, I'm drunk as shit right now, and I think you're the one who's had too many drinks!" Cana remarked as she reached for another bottle.

"Blondie has lost all of my respect...!" Flare blew out her tongue.

In spite of the near-universally negative reaction toward Lucy's psychotic episode, Erza simply smiled. Then that smile grew into a vicious grin that stretched from ear to ear. She started drooling, and her fingers twitched excitedly. She approached Lucy slowly and cautiously, not in fear, but more like a predator ready to strike.

"Oh, Lucy, you got it all wrong...the only one who's a raging lesbian here is me! Heh heh heh heh!"

Mirajane and Levy quickly scuttled away from the redhead's reach.

"Ah...wait...what..." Lucy took a few steps back, but Erza lunged for her, and she was on the blonde before anything could be done. Erza started lapping at her face like she was a dog, and Lucy couldn't do anything to stop her. Erza was squeezing her tits hard enough to make them leak.

As was already said, Lucy was having a stressful week.

* * *

Ending 3:

Mirajane, Levy, Cana, Erza and Flare burst into laughter. Lucy faltered; why were they laughing? Did these bitches already plan ahead for a development like this?

"Oh, Lucy, you're so silly!" Levy wiped a tear from her eye.

"Huh?" Lucy blinked. What was going on, she wondered.

"Lucy, you don't need to worry about anything like that happening. We're your friends; we would never try to take advantage of you like that!" Mirajane assured the younger woman.

"You...you wouldn't? Really?"

"Of course we wouldn't, shtupid! Have a little...faith in us! URP!" Cana belched in her face.

"Blondie can trust me!"

Erza held out her hand for Lucy to take. "Let's take you in the back room and get you some new clothes, so that you don't end up embarrassing yourself further!"

"R-Right...I'm sorry, girls," Lucy reached out, and took Erza's hand, her mind finally starting to calm itself, "I was being an idiot...I shouldn't have let my imagination get so wild like that, and now I did something completely inappropriate. I really hope you can all forgive me...and, um, why do you all have nosebleeds right now?"

"Never mind that! Let's go into the back room...all of us..."

As was already said, Lucy was having a stressful week.


	23. Pocky

"Erza! Pocky game!"

Erza looked up from her book to see Lucy leaning over the table, a thin, chocolate-flavored biscuit stick jutting out of her mouth like some kind of edible cigarette holder. Erza blinked. She didn't know what it was that Lucy wanted her to do, as she'd never heard of something called 'pocky game' before. Ever since Erza had brought back some souvenirs from the foreign lands, Lucy had been obsessed with them. This must have been apart of it.

The redhead reached over and, with a single thrust, pushed the entire stick down Lucy's throat. The blonde rolled off of her seat, coughing and choking in a spastic fit.

"You okay?" Erza asked dully. She knew Lucy would be alright. She hadn't pushed it in that hard.

Lucy stood up while rubbing her aching throat. "E-Erza!" she spat, "That...that wasn't how you're supposed to do it...!"

"Oh?"

"You're supposed...you're supposed to eat it too!"

"Is that what I'm supposed to do? What exactly is this pocky game thing about?"

"If you eat it...you'll understand..." Lucy sighed. She took out another stick from the box, and slipped it in between her lips. "Now come on!"

"Okay..."

Erza bit down on the other end of the pocky stick. She closed her eyes, and just as Lucy asked, she started to nibble on it...but she nibbled on it so fast that she sucked the whole stick into her mouth before Lucy could take a single bite herself.

"Mmm! It's really tasty!" Erza grinned.

Lucy gasped. "Erza!"

"I can't believe you were keeping these things from me all this time...can I have another, please?" Erza gave her a wink, but Lucy wasn't taken in, not today.

"Erza!"

"What?"

"You're...you're not doing it right! We're supposed to eat it at the same time, until we get to the end!"

"Is that it? You should have said so," Erza shrugged.

Lucy was starting to get very, very annoyed with her girlfriend. "Okay, we're going to try this one more time, and you have to do it right! I really want to try this!"

"Okay, Lucy, I understand..."

"Do you really?"

"Of course I do." Erza smiled back.

"Alright..."

Lucy placed the pocky stick in her mouth again. She closed her eyes, and waited. Erza stared at Lucy, then at the pocky, and back at Lucy again. She had an idea. Reaching out, Erza snatched the pocky straight from Lucy's lips. Lucy's eyes snapped back open, and she looked about ready to cut Erza, she was so mad.

"What're you-" Lucy started to shout, but Erza cut her off with a deep, passionate kiss. Erza ran her tongue in a ring around Lucy's plump lips before diving deep into her throat. Lucy had gone limp, like a pile of boiled noodles, as she let Erza play around with her mouth some more, exploring every corner of it, licking up the taste of chocolate that still clung to the bottom of her jaw. When they finally separated, Erza looked satisfied, while Lucy looked like she was going to pass out from heat stroke.

"G-Geez, Erza...you..." Lucy covered her face with her hands.

"I don't get why you would want to play that stupid game," Erza replied, chewing on the pocky, "If you wanted me to kiss you so badly, just ask me."


End file.
